Obama to offer ideas for fighting urban poverty

Obama could have taken his Harvard law degree and went corporate and he'd be a multi-millionaire by now.

But he didn't.

His entire life he has fought for the poor and the powerless. He doesn't just say he supports janitors and housekeepers, he walks picket lines with them. He doesn't tell people just what they want to hear, he tells them hard truths.

This one of many reasons he'll make a great president. A president for all of us.

Mr. Obama's comments on poverty are welcome if he will match his rhetoric with a realistic proposal for action. It begins with education and the problem of young persons who disdain education which is the real recipe for lifting oneself out of poverty. He needs also to include an economic development plan for areas not well served by jobs and quit fighting job providers like Walmart. Then let him develop a proposal for preventative law enforcement programs to discourage law breaking. Finally, and the root of much of the problem, the need to encourage two-parent households and responsible parental guidance. Don't
just give us speeches, Mr. Obama. Give us an action plan...and now.

Barack, how are those words any different than statements made by just about every politicians for generations?
"If poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence; failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation," he says. "We have to heal that entire community. And we have to focus on what actually works."

Well, good golly, Barack, that sounds great, BUT the devil is in the details.

Now, he says we have to focus on what actually works. Well we know setting up public housing in which poor folks live on top of poor folks who live on top of poor folks does not work.
We know mass welfare does not work.
We do know setting up enterprise zones do work, which began under the Reagan administration and I'll give credit to BillyBoy for continuing them during his administration.
What we also know that works is personal responsibility. We know that family settings with a mom and a dad works way more often than not too. We know that way more often than not, single motherhood, no father, multiple dads, whatever does not work.

But as usual, Barack makes overly general statements that most people cannot disagree with, but it's those pesky details and programs that get in the way, or in Barack's case never get mentioned.

Come on, Doug, until the other day has Barack actually walked a picket line? And what exactly as a state senator did he do?
And Barack is not a millionaire? Seems to me he and wife make a pretty darn good buck, of which there is nothing wrong with that. Course, it does seem some of his wife's recent job upgrades have much to do with his position as a U.S. senator.

I will say this, while I know of no agreement with him on an issue (there maybe one or two out there in the Twilight Zone), certainly Obama seems like a nice, personale individual. Issues aside, you need a lot more than that to be president though.

Obama's 10-point program to fight urban poverty is to string together ten paragraphs of emptiness and number them 1-10.

Obama, you don't need to make an announcement that you are actually going to say something of substance. Just say it.

At least Obama is bringing up the issue. What is our current leader doing about poverty? Giving poor people a chance to go fight in Iraq?

I'm interested to hear what ideas Obama thinks "actually work." I would hope he's not just proposing more government programs. But give us more than lofty platitudes, Mr. Senator.

"Obama's 10-point program to fight urban poverty is to string together ten paragraphs of emptiness and number them 1-10.

Posted by: Bruce | July 18, 2007 10:53 AM"

Okay Bruce - post ANY program by ANY Republican candidate for president to fight urban poverty, so that we can see what your side is proposing.

That is, if you can find one.

Well, BC, what is Barack's program? And what was Barack's program in Illinois as a state senator? Hmmm, we've had total Democratic control of Illinois for nearly six years now and what we have for it is more corruption, more spending, higher taxes, businesses leaving the state, roads crumbling and a governor who wants to put a $10 BILLION tax on businesses in which his own party won't even support.

"If poverty is a disease that infects an entire community in the form of unemployment and violence; failing schools and broken homes, then we can’t just treat those symptoms in isolation,"

Old Boy Wonder has it backwards - its not poverty that causes unemployment, viloence, failing schools, etc...

It is unemployment, viloence, failing schools, etc... that causes poverty.

Failing schools, all of which are run by the gov't with more money than the private schools. Gov't at its worst.

Doug Zook,

Your post said absolutely nothing.

Quite some time ago I asked any Obama fan to give me a real reason to vote for the man. You and a couple of others responded by telling me to go to his website. (As if I hadn't thought of that and done so.)

Other than those briliant responses, the silence has been stunning!

And now you add this fluff.

CAN you talk about policy and record and convince me to give him my vote? I think not.

PS: By the way, I think Barack is quite a bit wealthier now than he would be if he had "taken his Harvard law degree and went corporate". You're so naive!

Shanika:

Of all the posts I saw in this thread, yours knocked the ball out of the park. I couldn’t have said it any better.

Our country would be much safer today had we spent the over $200 Billion this ill-conceived war has cost on poverty, education and health care at home.

Especially education!! The lack of which is where poverty begins.

The children of the south and west sides of Chicago deserve the same, high quality education as the privleged children of Winnetka, Wilmette and Lake Forest.

Now, funding alone cannot do it, it must be spent wisely. But it needs to satrt with the recruitment and training of quality teachers. Teachers need to think of their families, too. Most people who go into that profession truly want to make a difference. But what choice does one have if New Trier can offer $80,000 and a CPS only about $40,000. There needs to be a more equitable distribution of education funding throughout the state, yes, with rich school districts helping poor ones.

That would be the start to truly leaving no child behind. And the beginning of reducing poverty.

So much rhetoric on the left and right goes on without anything getting done. I someitmes wonder if there is a conspiracy on both sides to keep the poor down.

Its like the line from the movie "Caddyshack". When Danny tells judge Smails he won't have enough money to go to college, the Judge responds, "Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too."

Could it be that the powerful decision makers worry about losing their "ditch diggers" if everyone was educated properly?