Day: February 10, 2012

President Barack Obama And Women’s Role In His Administration: Greater Than Any President!

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With the controversy over contraception coverage for women in religiously based employment at the height of the news this week, it became evident that President Obama was influenced by women in his administration toward the stand he took, until he backtracked earlier today. Among those women influencing his earlier stand were Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House aide Valerie Jarrett. Among the men opposed were Vice President Joe Biden and former Chief of Staff William Daley.

Last year, it was women working with Barack Obama, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who convinced him to get involved in Libya”s Civil War, although others such as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon advised against it.

This is an interesting development, as never before have women had such significance in decision making on important domestic and foreign policy issues as under Obama.

Whether in the long run this will be seen as positive for the Obama record in office will be debated and analyzed for decades!

Five Years Of Barack Obama As A National Figure

Ronald 3 Comments

Five years ago today, in Springfield, the state capital of Illinois, Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency of the United States.

No one could possibly have known on that day that Obama would succeed in his quest for the Presidency, with the odds so long, and competing with better known, more experienced political leaders, including the wife of former President Bill Clinton (Hillary Clinton).

No one could also have known how much Barack Obama has had an impact on our history in the first three years of his term as President.

No one could also have known that he would be the subject of such vilification, greater than his predecessor George W. Bush, greater than the controversial Richard Nixon, and matching that suffered by Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The debate over the record of Barack Obama, and whether he should be, and will be re-elected President in November 2012, rages on, but there is no way to deny that Barack Obama has had an historic impact on our nation’s history!

An Acceptable Compromise: Contraceptive Services For Women Of Religiously Based Employers To Be Offered Gratis By Insurance Companies

Ronald 1 Comment

President Barack Obama has announced that contraceptive services for women who work for religiously based employers, such as universities and hospitals, will not have to be paid by the religious group as part of their health care plan, but instead will be a requirement for insurance companies to cover without charge.

This takes away the issue of religious liberty, which has been promoted incessantly by supporters of the Catholic Church and other religious groups, and exploited by the Republican Party and its Presidential candidates. Our belief in freedom of religion made it necessary for the administration to reconsider its handling of this part of the Obama Health Care legislation, which itself will be considered as to its constitutionality in the next few months by the US Supreme Court.

One can be assured, however, that politics will be utilized, and that this controversy will not disappear from the Presidential campaign, but it seems a win for women’s rights, as well as religious liberty!

The Poor Often Forgotten: The White Underclass

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Whenever there is discussion of the problem of poverty, the tendency of most people is to assume that poverty is found only in the city ghettos across the country, and that poverty is found only among African American and Hispanic and Latino communities.

The thought that there might be millions of white poor people in rural areas and in the suburbs, particularly since the Great Recession hit in 2008, which has caused the loss of more jobs and foreclosure of homes on a massive basis than ever in the past 80 years, has not been generally recognized.

Many of the white poor are single mothers with children, but also includes families where both mother and father have lost their jobs, and also people in their 50s and 60s who are unlikely ever to get a full time job ever again, sadly, and also senior citizens and the disabled who are in a terrible state of affairs when it comes to medical care and having adequate money for food and other necessities.

Of course, there are minorities in the same boat, but in actuality, there are many more forgotten whites than minorities. And instead of the Republican Party being willing to recognize this reality, instead they love to use the race card to imply that the vast majority of poor are nonwhite, when just the opposite is the case.

The growing income inequality and education gaps are the true crisis for America’s future, and we do not see the Republican Party willing to address this truth, but instead utilize fear and hysteria to keep many whites from voting for the party who really cares about their future, the Democrats under Barack Obama!