A Rising Tide...

It won't do. That answer on black unemployment was awful. I'm out of my realm here, and I'm not sure what should be done. Economics isn't my area. But Obama's basic position seems to be that government really has no active role in rectifying racial disparities. If that's his position, then he should say it. If his position is that it's better to target by other demographic categories, besides race, he should say that. But he ducked that one. And then ducked the follow-up. Weak, weak, weak.

I'm hoping someone with a better grasp of the numbers will challenge him on this. Not in that weak "You didn't say Martin Luther King's whole name" way, but in a serious policy-driven way.

UPDATE: I've got two editors breathing down my neck for stories, and this blog, and my own reading. But the answer really pissed me off--so much so, that I am really going to try to expend some shoe leather this week and get underneath of it.

I think what really got me was, as much as I appreciate what Obama has done with respect to black media, I don't think he took the question seriously. I don't think his answer was particularly thoughtful, or illuminating. Which says to me he hasn't been thinking about it. I could be wrong, but it's what I feel.

I need to go do my damn job...

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2009/06/a-rising-tide/19946/