In some ways, the hardest thing President Obama had to do was get reelected.

Ezra Klein, a business columnist for The Washington Post, wrote Wednesday that “President Obama’s reelection, ironically, isn’t about hope and change. The hope is largely gone, but the changes are already happening.”

Klein pointed out that health care reform had passed and that just by being reelected Obama had managed to confirm that it would become the law of the land when most of the remaining elements of Obamacare take effect in 2014.

The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, as well as the alternative minimum tax and the payroll tax cut. The president already has said he will not sign legislation extending all three tax cuts.

If that’s the case, then part of the problem of raising revenue is somewhat resolved and the legislation is already on the books.

Add to that the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, which will set new regulations for Wall Street and has already passed into law.

The resolutions to three sticky problems are already on the books and Obama doesn’t have to fight with the Republican-led House of Representatives again to get any of it passed.

“So while in 2008 his election was a vote for hope, in 2012 his reelection carries a guarantee of change,” Klein wrote.

One also may argue that it simply was more of the smart planning that Obama and his team have been known for.

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The GOP’s strategy was to rely largely on white men and shave off small chunks, 5-7 percent of black and Latino votes, a significant percentage of women, although not a majority, to put Romney over the top.

It clearly didn’t work.

“2012 will be the last campaign where one of the major parties seeks to get elected solely with the white vote,” David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said Wednesday in a forum to discuss the impact of the black vote during this year’s campaign.

Bositis said the black vote was crucial in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida, the latter where votes are still being counted and Obama maintains a narrow lead—and Romney today conceded the state to Obama.

In Ohio, particularly, the percentage of black voters increased by 4 percentage points, from 11 to 15 percent of the total turnout, compared to 2008. And Obama won 96 percent of the black vote on Tuesday.

“That’s where President Obama’s margin of victory came from, the black vote in Ohio,” Bositis said.

Read more at the Atlanta Black Star.

The 2012 election was historic for more than just the reelection of the nation’s first black president.

“2012 will be the last campaign where one of the major parties seeks to get elected solely with the white vote,” David Bositis, senior political analyst for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said Wednesday in a forum to discuss the impact of the black vote during this year’s campaign.

“2012 very clearly showed that the country is multiracial, multiethnic” and successful candidates in the future – especially Republican candidates – “have to appeal to a much wider group.”

Further, Bositis said, the black vote was crucial in the so-called swing states of Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida, the latter of which votes are still being counted and Obama holds on to a narrow lead.

The percentage of black voter turnout in those states increased substantially, Bositis said. In Ohio, particularly, the percentage of black voters voting increased by 4 percentage points, from 11 to 15 percent of the total turnout, compared to 2008. And Obama won 96 percent of the black vote on Tuesday.

Read more at Black America Web.

Americans love the tough guy, the guy who kicks butt and takes names, who mops the floor with his opponents, who has the quick one-liners that can shut a conversation down.

It’s why we like Sylvester Stallone, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, action flicks with memorable lines and lots of action. It’s why we love James Bond, the Matrix series and even Star Wars.

It’s why Mitt Romney “won” the debate against Barack Obama, and why many Americans view the former Massachusetts governor as a better leader, even if they don’t agree with his policies.

A Quinnippiac University/New York Times/CBS News poll, showed likely voters in Colorado, Virginia and Wisconsin – considered three battleground states – said Romney had gained strength in leadership skills.

“About two-thirds of the voters in each state said Mr. Romney has strong leadership qualities, more than said the same of the president,” The Times reported Thursday on the poll’s results.

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Lest Obama supporters get really nervous, however, there is still good news out there for the president.
 
According to David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, "the odds are still 2-1 for Obama (vs. 3-1 before the debate). The polls today [Thursday] are good for the president and first-time claims for unemployment fell 30,000 last week."
 
So voters can go for the "tough guy" with movie star looks, or they can go for the real thing.


Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.

While pundits and Obama supporters were moaning Thursday morning about how Mitt Romney gained momentum by aggressively going after the president in their first debate, fact-checkers were busy sorting out the truth from half-truth from outright inaccuracies.

Romney, it appears, certainly had more swagger, but Obama had stronger command of the facts.

The Republican nominee rejected parts of his own tax plan, denying he intended to increase tax breaks only for the rich. He also failed to respond with details when asked where he would get the money from to cut taxes for all Americans, increase defense spending and not increase the deficit.

His quick answer was he would put more Americans to work in better paying jobs, which would mean more people paying taxes, which would help close the gap.

Romney’s advisers before the debate essentially told him to stick with jabbing the president, tagging Obama with the still struggling aspects of the economy and not get mired down in the details. Leave the policy wonk patter to Obama and appeal to emotion.

Clearly, the plan worked, at least for a night.
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In an interview last month, David Bositis, a senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said that Obama and the Democrats had not done a good job of making clear how the Romney plan would hurt Americans, especially the poor and people of color, even during Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic Party’s nomination at this year’s convention.

The Democrats, Bositis said, did a terrible job, “including Obama—his worst performance is not talking about how much he’s done…”

Read more at the Atlanta Black Star.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, was the message Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed delivered to an audience at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies annual anniversary gala dinner in Washington, D.C.

Reed was honored Tuesday with the Joint Center’s 2012 Louis E. Martin Great American Award.

The Louis E. Martin Great American Award, named after the legendary journalist and presidential adviser and founder of the Joint Center, honors an individual who has promoted racial harmony while championing policies that have made a difference in American society. Previous award recipients included the late civil rights activist Dorothy I. Height, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and the Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.

As a handful of civil rights leaders and federal officials gathered at the National Mall early Monday to lay a wreath at the foot of the Stone of Hope at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the nation – and much of the world – paused to reflect on King’s legacy, various ways to honor him and to think what it would be like if King was alive today.

“The commemorative national holiday in Dr. King’s honor is a time to reflect on that vision and the path of nonviolence that he chose,” Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said in a statement. “It is also a time to actively affirm our dedication to building a society where freedom rings and in which every individual is afforded the opportunity to live his or her dreams.”

Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.

How well you live depends a lot on where you live.

Two studies released by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies this week reveal that segregation continues to play an important role in health inequities, and concentrated poverty has increased the number of people in high poverty neighborhoods by nearly 5 million.

The reports, "A Lost Decade: Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban Crisis of the 2000s" and "Segregated Spaces, Risky Places: The Effects of Racial Segregation on Health Inequalities," were released at the Joint Center’s “Place Matters” national conference in Washington, D.C., which focused on the relationship between location and health, particularly with regard to racial and ethnic health inequities.

Read more at BlackAmericaWeb.

Ron Walters was a man on a mission.

Whether working on a book about President Barack Obama, granting interviews about TV personality Glenn Beck’s rally at the Lincoln Memorial or schooling reporters about the exacting details of interpreting polls and the real intention behind political machinations, the dedicated and highly respected scholar, strategist and teacher worked almost constantly to educate as many people as he could about the importance and practical consequences of public policy in the African-American community.

Constantly working, Walters seemed to be akin to the Energizer Bunny - just going and going, driven to complete every task he had assigned himself.

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“Dr. Ronald Walters was the nation’s preeminent scholar on black politics and, importantly, an influential practitioner and political strategist,” Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said in a statement Sunday.

Read the Full Story at blackamericaweb.com.
 

Politics will slow immediate substantive change to the nation’s energy and climate policies, but slow change is better than none, and a disaster like BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico helps push things along, a panel on environmental policy issues said Thursday.

“Politics is the art of the possible,” Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow and director of climate strategy for the Center for American Progress, said at the forum sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Weiss joined a panel of experts on the environment as part of the Center’s speakers series on critical issues in climate change. The focus was on the green economy, clean energy and the implications on policy changes in those areas in light of the oil spill in the Gulf.

Read more at The Washington Informer.

Dr. Dorothy Height, The Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement

Dorothy I. Height, was remembered as a gracious and giving leader, who didn’t necessarily need the limelight, but didn’t hesitate to help African Americans, and black women particularly, gain social, economic and political ground.

The 98-year-old chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and chairperson of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, died Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Read the Full Story at BlackAmericaWeb.com.