Author Archive: Bill Black
I'm a baby boomer, lefty Democrat, Boston Irish Catholic, born in 1953. I work as a public affairs consultant in Washington.
The Food Stamp President
Newt Gingrich
In another example of how far off the rails the American conservative movement has gone, the Economist, a pretty conservative publication, takes Newt Gingrich to task for his latest demagoguery, calling President Obama “the Food Stamp President” and claiming that he has “put” more people on food stamps that any president in history.
Here’s the conservative Economist’s take:
Of course, Barack Obama has put no one on food stamps. Population growth together with the most severe recession since the advent of the modern American welfare state, which was in full swing when Mr Obama came into office, conspired to make a record number eligible for government food assistance. The Obama administration has moved to expand eligibility for the SNAP programme, but the initiative has not come to fruition. That there is a safety net, and that it succeeds in keeping millions of Americans from the misery and humiliation of hunger, may be an uncomfortable fact for Mr Gingrich, but not for Mr Obama or for any of those among us who do not lament this humane achievement.
Imagine. A conservative supporting a “humane achievement” by government. Sounds so foreign. I guess they are all European socialists across the Atlantic.
Matt Lauer Nails Romney
This Matt Lauer interview with Mitt Romney on the Today Show yesterday was among the most revealing candidate interviews I’ve seen in a long time. Lauer’s question about income inequality was perfectly formulated and clearly set Romney on his heels. You can see it in his eyes. As a result, it showed how the Romney campaign planned to deal with this issue that was placed front and center in the campaign since Occupy Wall Street (OWS) started setting up their tents in Zuccotti Park in New York. Continue Reading
Fairwell, Kayla
Kayla Going for a Ride
We lost a beloved member of our extended family yesterday. Kayla, a large, lumbering Golden Retriever who was a long time member of my wife’s brother’s family finally succumbed to time and passed on.
Honestly, Kayla and I were not close. She would greet me when I arrived at the house and I would dutifully pet her. But I was not one of those, like my daughter Bridget, who would roll around in the grass with her in her younger days. So, while I was not one of her favorites, she was unfailingly polite to me. Occasionally, she would nudge me with that massive head of hers, trying to take our relationship to the next level, but would give up pretty quickly. I guess I’m just shy around dogs
Nevertheless, I valued Kayla tremendously because of the huge role she played in my brother-in-law’s family, and particularly with my brother-in-law, himself. Kayla and he were inseparably, except when he was at work. They had an extraordinary relationship that was apparent to anyone within seconds of seeing them together. And this is not to suggest that others in the family did not share a similar bond. Everyone loves his or her pet, but Kayla’s place in that family was really special. She was both the source and the object of unconditional love every day of her life with them.
We knew her time was near, but it was still a shock to learn she had gone. Even from my distant place, the news struck hard. There were tears in my household for a number of reasons. Certainly, we will miss Kayla from family gatherings. We also felt for the pain endured by those closest to Kayla, who will miss Kayla so deeply. But, on a more cosmic level, I felt sad that something that is purely good has left our lives, a totally innocent, loving animal is no longer with us. Our lives are diminished in that something so good is now gone.
In the movie , The Lion King, we’re told that it’s all part of “the circle of life,” which is supposed to help us accept these kinds of losses. Maybe….over time. But for now, I grieve for Kayla, those she loved and those who still love her.
Giving the Reading at St. Peter’s in Rome
It occurred to me that I’ve never posted the video of a high point in my life, the day I gave the reading at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It happened on a family vacation on June 26, 2005. I was plucked out of the congregation seemingly at random. The video was taken by my daughter, Bridget, who was 11 at the time. My wife, Rita, panicked when she couldn’t get the camera to work, so Bridget saved the day. For those keeping score, it was Romans 6:3-11.
I thought I’d test out the video capabilities for my new hosting service for the Preferential Option blog by posting the event. Here it is. It starts out with a Vatican official testing my reading abilities. There were about ten bishops on the alter. Very intimidating.
Jobs Report Boosts Obama’s Message
Bush Jobs Peformance Compared to Obama
I have not yet heard what the Republican reaction to today’s good jobs news is. On the surface, it seems they will have a difficult time spinning this negatively. Moreover, looking back over 2011, I don’t see how they can claim that their solutions (reviving the Bush policies) are superior to Obama’s. The graph at the left comes from Think Progress and makes the case pretty dramatically.
Most despicably, Romney has been assigning Obama responsibility for the job losses that occurred in the first months of his Administration, which were clearly left over from the Bush Economic collapse.
The big question is whether the media will let him get away with it.
I was recently asked what Obama’s re-election message would be and I facetiously responded, “It coulda been worse.” If the economy continues to improve, the burden shifts to the Republicans who will be forces to say, “It could be better,” without, of course, one shred of evidence that they could, in fact, do better. In fact, to the contrary, all evidence suggests they would make things worse.
It’s starting to get really interesting.
Santorum’s Values
Yesterday, I met with a very bright young British conservative who has come to the U.S. in a bit of a career shift. I was a bit taken aback by his resume which was loaded with experience working on social justice projects. He described his work with great enthusiasm and explained the various successes he’s had working on these projects for the Conservative government in the UK. I told him that I was experiencing cognitive dissonance in our conversation, explaining that, on this side of the pond, assisting the poor is not a high priority for the conservatives. He, having worked with the Heritage Foundation, acknowledged as much. In fact, he surprised when he was told to avoid the term “social justice,” by American conservatives. He had considered “social justice” kind of like “apple pie” for us. Not so, in the American conservative movement. Continue Reading
Romney’s Drone Attack
While the Iowa Caucus has resulted in a bit of muddle in terms of the status of candidates at this point in the Republican nomination process, it has provided utter clarity in overall strategy by which Mitt Romney hopes to become president. He will be matching Obama’s strategy for taking out Al Qaeda. Here’s how.
It is a given among political consultants that negative ads work. Voters complain about them and vow to ignore them, but there is absolutely no doubt but that voters are influenced by them…to a point. There are two ways that negative ads can backfire. They can simply be bad ads, dishonest, harsh or simply over the top. In that case, the voters react against the perpetrator of the negative ad and the advantage goes to the target. The other way they can backfire is, in a multi-candidate election, two candidates attacking each other effectively succeed in tearing each other down and the voters reject both. Another candidate, seen as taking the high road, can sneak through. A prerequisite of both of these scenarios is the fact that the voters know who is airing the negative ads so they can punish them. Continue Reading
Quote of the Day – Iowa
I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money; I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.
Despicable.
Movie Review – The Way
Martin Sheen is known to be a devout Catholic. I describe myself and an observant Catholic who aspires to be devout. So, I went to see Sheen’s new movie, which was written and directed by Sheen’s son, Emelio Estevez, with certain expectation and some concerns. My expectations were that it would be a religious movie, since it centers on a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. I’d never heard of this apparently well know trail along which pilgrims have traveled for hundreds of years. It is described in the movie in fairly mystical, but not religious, terms. My concern was that the religious aspect of the movie would be depicted in a smarmy, emotional way. I imagined this as a bit of a proselytizing project of Sheen, which was supported by the fact that Sheen and his son appeared at Catholic University last year on their promotional tour. Frankly, I enjoy watching Martin Sheen, but I have seen him in roles that are a bit over the top. Continue Reading