TONY COX, host:
Time now to see what other stories are heating up the blogsphere. On today's Roundtable, is the president trying to tackle too many issues at once? Our bloggers weigh in. Plus, the number of black state lawmakers reaches record levels and the U.S. Supreme Court limits the reach of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. With us, Brandon Whitney of the blog Homeland Colors, he also writes about politics for the Web sites Black Men in America and My Voice DC. Political and social opinion writer Sophia Nelson - she's editor in chief of the Political Intersection blog - and Marc Lamont Hill, a professor of American Studies at Temple University. He blogs at MarcLamontHill.com and at The Root. Hello everybody.
Prof. MARC LAMONT HILL (Temple University): How are you doing?
Mr. BRANDON WHITNEY (Homeland Colors): Hey, good to be here.
COX: Great, nice to have you. Now, on MSNBC on Monday, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch lambasted President Obama saying he lacked focus and was sending out a muddled message on the economy.
(Soundbite of interview)
Mr. JACK WELCH (Former CEO, General Electric): This is locked in another world and he's throwing all these initiatives into this game in the middle of a crisis. Focus on the economy.
COX: Welch went on to say that people who broach even the slightest criticism of President Obama due so at the peril of becoming pariahs in New York City. So Marc, here's the question. There are two points that he is making here, one, that Obama is losing focus and two, that you can't say that Obama is losing focus. Is he right?
Prof. HILL: I'd say yes and no. I think the first part is Obama losing - actually rather, no and yes. Is Obama losing focus? No. There is no way that you can talk about long-term financial stability without talking about shoring up sort of energy issues, shoring up educational issues - that's how we ensure that long-term America will be more independent and more financially stable. Now the question though is, can you offer a public critique of Barack Obama and not be subject to a certain type of public scrutiny maybe even demonization. I'm inclined to say he's right, and I don't think it's just exclusive to right-wingers. I think those of us on the left who have offered critique of Barack Obama have also been pushed to the margins a bit. I'm not going to say it's impossible - I don't want to be hyperbolic - but it's certainly difficult to offer critique of him in the public square.
COX: What about that Sophia, can you criticize the president and does he need to be criticized about trying to do too many things at once.
Ms. SOPHIA NELSON (Political Intersection): Two points, yes, first I agree with Jack Welch. Not necessarily his tone, but I think that he's right. I do think the president has taken on far too much. He wants an energy policy that's comprehensive. He wants a health care policy that's comprehensive. And he wants to do all these in the middle of a free-falling stock market. It did a little better yesterday but it's, you know, not been so hot over the last month, job loses at record highs. I think he needs to focus and I do agree and I would actually add in that if you're African-American and you criticize the president, you really catch heat. And, no, it's true, I mean, people will get hostile with you whether it's a church or wherever it is. If you say something bad about Barack Obama, it is not taken very well, and I think that's a little dangerous. You know, I think that we ought to be able to criticize this president as we do any American president when he's not right.
COX: You know, I know that that was certainly the case during the campaign, if you criticized Obama because of the euphoria over his historic run. But Brandon, since he's been in office, do you think as the black people can't criticize the president in public?
Mr. WHITNEY: Of course, they can. I mean, it's a free country. The problem I think Jack Welch has is that he wants to be able to criticize the president and not be criticized for his criticism. And it's a free country. You can say what you want to and other people might find what you say to be foolish. I mean, I feel like Jack Welch is a CEO, and that's great. But there's a big difference between being a CEO and focusing on one thing, that is profits, and being a president and having multiple things that you have to focus on. When he decides to put something to the side, people can literally die. His opportunity costs isn't profit, it's people's lives. So when Jack Welch is trying to fix it so that he runs - so that Obama runs the country like he run GE, I think it's a foolish and false analogy.
COX: Well, let's talk about some of those multiple things that he's dealing with, Marc. Yesterday, the president marked his 50th day in office. Here's what he's been dealing with so far, OK. He's unveiled the first piece of his education plan, reversed restrictions on science and stem cell research, signed a huge stimulus package, announced the withdrawal of combat personnel from Iraq within the next 19 months. What's going to get fixed first?
Prof. HILL: Well, the first thing we have to understand is Barack Obama has teams of people in place. There is something to be said about public relations. He can certainly offer a different public image as suggested. He's focused exclusively on the economy. All hands are on deck, as it were, while other people focus on those issues. But I think you're going to see the economy taken care of first, and I think many of these initiatives that he's working on are indirect conversation with. They're not competing agendas they are in direct conversation with his economic plan. The stimulus plan is in direct relationship to the broadest of economic concerns that we have. A long-term education plan. Every statistic, every study suggests that long-term investment in education and educational access will improve the economy, will expand prosperity, will help raise the floor upon which all Americans stand. The cap in trade not only improves our energy policy but it also ultimately generates the tax revenue necessary to support a health-care project. So there is this way which these things are all interrelated and it's almost disingenuous or naive of Jack Welch's suggest that he has too many irons in the fire.
Mr. WHITNEY: And also Jack Welch has already demonstrated a lack of understanding of politics. He made an attempt to move in to EU as his last effort as president I believe with GE, and his failure to understand the political situation in EU preventing him for being successful in that. He doesn't understand politics. So I'm confused as to why they even have him up there speaking on political issues.
Ms. NELSON: Well, he doesn't understand politics but he understands economics and corporate governance and building a company and doing very well. He's a very wealthy man and he's done very well for himself. He has a good business head so I think to dismiss him as not understanding politics is a bit naive and disingenuous because of things …
Mr. WHITNEY: But those are two different skills set. Those are totally different skills sets.
COX: They overlap.
Ms. NELSON: No wait, the president of the United States needs to have that skills set right now, and the bottom line is this isn't about politics and this is about this country moving forward. And if you look at the bills that have been presented that the president is going to sign, they are riddled with spending that has nothing to do with either the short term or the long term health of this economy recovering and creating jobs. It has nothing to do with it.
Mr. HILL: I think that kind of speaks to my point because, he is the president. The Congress controls the earmarks. Although he hates the earmarks, or doesn't want those earmarks, he has not choice if he wants that bill passed in a reasonable amount of time but to sign that. So those compromises are required. And if your just looking at the bottom line like a CEO and that's OK, but if you're president and you have all these different issues to focus on, you can't afford to be as pure in ideology as a businessman.
COX: Let me ask all of you...
Ms. NELSON: I think you do(ph) your word...
COX: Let me ask all you just to do this because we're going to move on to another topic. And I want to get a grade from you. I know it's an oversimplification, but just for clarity sake, in terms of how you think Barack Obama has performed as president so far on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being like great, wonderful. What would you say, Marc?
Prof. HILL: I would say, I'd give him a seven - six and half, seven.
COX: Six and a half, seven. Sophia?
Ms. NELSON: Seven.
COX: Seven. And Brandon?
Mr. WHITNEY: I'd give him an eight.
COX: An eight. All right. So, he is passing.
Prof. HILL: You've read on a curve, brother.
COX: He's passing.
Prof. HILL: I mean, and.
COX: Let's....
Mr. WHITNEY: I'm just playing. I'm just playing.
COX: Let's…
Mr. WHITNEY: Sorry about that, Tony.
COX: It's OK. That's alright. Let's move on to his coattails actually, a little bit. President Obama, not the only black leader making history these days. As of last month, a record five African-Americans are leading state legislative bodies and the number of black state lawmakers has reached record levels. Do you think that Obama's ascendancy paved the way for a new path - paved the path, I should say, for a generation of black leaders, and is this part of the coattail effect, Sophia?
Ms. NELSON: No, I think that they're separate. I mean, I think that we have seen a positive trend in the state legislatures, for example, particularly in the northeast and some other regions where they're heavily populated groups of African-Americans and people of color in the South. So, we've seen those trends at the county and the state local level and this was - it's generational. We've talked about this before, Gen X which is my generation is coming in to power now. Obama is kind of sort of Gen X. He's a little older, he's not old enough to be a boomer, but I think that the presidency is something that is separate and apart because I still think all of us are beaten awe and shock - I know I am - that we still have an - that we have an African-American president. I still I'm grappling with, wow, that's real. And I think that was something that happen a little bit quicker than we all expected that it might but I think the trends in the state legislatures are - have been going in that direction so I'm not all surprised by this.
COX: Well, Marc on the other hand, on the other hand, while Mr. Obama is getting all the love except for from Jack Wells at the moment now, other black leaders are suffering publicly like GOP national committee chairman Michael Steele, former Detroit mayor Quamy Kilpatrick, New York governor David Paterson. Are these men being measured against Obama, do you think?
Prof. HILL: I don't think you have to be measured against Obama, necessarily, to fail. I mean, Michael Steele measured against the chair I'm sitting in would be a failure based on its performance. Quamy Kilpatrick just got out of jail. I mean, you know, you don't need a sort of world historical figure like Barack Obama to make these guys look bad. I think these guys are doing well on their own. I think that people will ultimately be measured against Barack Obama but I think the current cadre of particularly Republican black leadership is more about our GOP reactionary tactics than it is anything to do with Barack Obama.
COX: Well, I wonder, Brandon. Do you think there's any legitimacy to the thought that the president's - I don't want to say survival - but the president's just existence in that chair as a black person has changed the dynamic at all for other black politicians, and those who don't live up are going to pay a price?
Mr. WHITNEY: Perhaps slightly. I think in the wider society - at large, it probably doesn't have as much of an effect. Nothing is statistically significant.
COX: You mean wider, W-I-D-E-R?
Mr. WHITNEY: Exactly. Thank you. But I think within the African-American community kind of helps and that we stop settling, you. I think, and a lot of different airs we're just so happy have somebody black in a position that we settle for anybody. So, you know, if you have a guy who's mayor and his text messaging somebody, something he probably is going to be doing on a - on his iPod or whatever you want to call it...
COX: Absolutely.
Mr. WHITNEY: You know, we settle for it. Now think, we're starting to realize you don't have to settle for just anybody just because of the color of the skin. So, I think perhaps in that way - but other than that, I mean, there are lot of smart African-American people and they know how to speak well and they know how to run campaigns.
CPX: We're going to have to…
Mr. WHITNEY: So I'm not at all surprised.
COX: Skip over one of the topics that we intended to talk about because we spent more time talking about earmarks than we had originally intended, and I want to get to this topic even though it's a big left turn away from everything that we're discussing. It's Chris Brown. And the reason I want to do this is because I know that at least two of you, Sophia and Marc, have been blogging about this and apparently a lot of others as well, in terms of what should happen to Chris Brown as a result of his alleged beating of Rihanna. Talk about what you're…
Ms. NELSON: Alleged?
COX: Seeing on - well, it's alleged until you're convicted.
Ms. NELSON: I know, I know. I know.
COX: That's…
Ms. NELSON: You know I know better.
COX: OK, it's an important thing to remember...
Ms. NELSON: It was emotional. I'm sorry.
COX: But you know what? But see, that's the whole point, that people have been responding emotionally on the blogs, haven't they? Sophia?
Ms. NELSON: Well, let me say that I've got a couple of pieces coming out on this that are more of a serious nature. I lost. I've buried a girlfriend last week on March fifth. It was in the papers here locally in D.C. Pat Kelly was shot dead by her husband at church, the People's Church in Silver Spring, Maryland. Domestic violence was going on. None of us knew about it. She always looked like everything was OK. And so this is deeply personal for me, and it's coming at the same time that this Rihanna-Chris Brown thing is going on. And I have two young nieces who think Rihanna's really cool and cute and listen to her music. And so it is emotional and I think all of us should be much more emotional about the topic of domestic violence, particularly in the black community.
COX: Now, Marc. I've got about 30 seconds for you to talk about what you've been writing on your blog.
Prof. HILL: You know, again, I've been taking aback a bit by the amount of, again, emotional investment that many of my readers have in this controversy. So many people taking sides, so many people trying to make sense of this, so many people begging Rihanna not to take them back, not just because of what it means for Rihanna, but what it means for the broader sort of representation of black womanhood in the public sphere. People are worried that if Rihanna takes Chris Brown back that young black girls would think that an abusive relationship is acceptable. And the other thing very quickly which is disturbing is the way when people keep looking for exculpatory narratives for Chris Brown. They're trying to find a reason to make him OK. You know, Rihanna must've done something wrong, Rihanna must have hit him with something, Rihanna must have started the fight. You know, looking for an excuse to make Chris Brown's behavior unacceptable. And these two competing narratives say a lot about gender relationships in our community and then brought American Society.
COX: All right, Brandon, I'm sorry I'm not going to have time to get your response on it. Will try to do it again next time. We have...
Mr. WHITNEY: It would have just been ditto anyway, so.
COX: All right. We've been talking with Marc Lamont Hill, who teaches American Studies at Temple University. He blogs at MarcLamontHill.com and at The Root. Marc was at our New York Studios. Brandon Whitney of the blog Homeland Colors. He joined us from our headquarters in Washington D.C. and political and social opinion writer Sophia Nelson. She's editor-in-chief of the political intersection blog and was at member station WETA in Arlington, Virginia. Of course, you can find links to their blogs as well as to ours at nprnewsandnotes.org.
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