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This sounds interesting:

A senior Obama strategist, David Axelrod, acknowledged that he is receiving varied advice from Democrats, including changing Obama's stump speech to emphasize his American roots and pushing for a second round of changes in the nation's welfare laws, this time aimed at stray fathers.

In a different, better world, the Republican Party would already have some interesting proposals in this area. But given that the GOP has more or less lost interest in welfare reform since the successes of the 1990s, and given that Obama might profit politically by going to his party's right on a social issue with substance as well as rhetoric - and given, obviously, the importance of the problem - this seems like a promising avenue for his campaign to pursue.

Comments

Agreed; this is exactly the kind of thing I would like Sen. Obama to do.

Posted by Oboe | March 6, 2008 12:54 PM

Did you just link to Entertainment Weekly for political commentary?

Posted by right | March 6, 2008 1:13 PM

Going after deadbeat dads sounds like the right thing to do but it's a proposal that works better on the drawing board than in real life.

If you want to create the conditions to resuscitate the Black Family, you'll need to end the conditions which are decimating it.

The humongous American incarceration rate is even more astronomical among Blacks in the inner city, where the Drug War has left precious few Afro-American males in a position to be dutiful fathers.

If you think a more vigorous Family Court bureaucracy garnishing wages from low-income Black Men is going to do the same thing as not locking away the Negro males in droves, well, your faith in the efficiency of government plans and institutions sweet, child-like naivete.

The ration of Black Men to Black Women is too low. We can't continue being Incarceration Nation. The pathologies are too many, too virulent, too deadly.

As a sensible conservative--a brilliant star in your own firmament--I urge you, Ross, to come out for some form of amelioration (if not abatement) of the frenzied, unthinking, wildly destructive War on Drugs.

Posted by nj | March 6, 2008 3:02 PM

nj writes: "As a sensible conservative--a brilliant star in your own firmament--I urge you, Ross, to come out for some form of amelioration (if not abatement) of the frenzied, unthinking, wildly destructive War on Drugs."

I've recently mentioned the old anti-Drug War issue of the National Review that Buckley put together - but that sort of thinking seems to be in short supply among the dim bulbs in today's conservative firmament. But you're quite right here, nj. Sullivan today linked to this:

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1719872,00.html

Here's a new slogan for the War Against the War On Drugs - It's A Load Of Shit, So Vote To Acquit.

Posted by TheBannedMoeLarryAndJesus | March 6, 2008 3:15 PM

I think ending the War on Drugs is a fantastic idea. But Barack Obama is the last person who can pledge to do so on the campaign trail without putting all sorts of wild ideas in people's heads, unfortunately.

Posted by TH | March 6, 2008 4:48 PM

Actually, McCain has thought through his position on welfare and broadly speaking come up with the following:

* Welfare recipients should be required to spend at least 40 hours a week in a combination of work and training programs.
* Supports increased funding for child care programs.
* Supports housing assistance for low-income families.
* Provide homeless families with apartment vouchers they can use to supplement the cost of an apartment
* Continue to give states and local governments responsibility for welfare programs through block grants
* Maintain current welfare-to-work requirements in order for states to qualify for block grants
* Require that unwed teenage mothers live with a parent or guardian (if possible) and attend school to receive benefits
* Restore food stamp programs to legal immigrants
* Transfer homeless housing programs to states through block grants
* Provide continued Medicaid benefits for those welfare recipients who have moved from welfare to work
* Provide federal assistance to low-income job applicants for transportation to jobs at some distance.

Though this is website policy wonk stuff, it is just this sort of concern for welfare that has got him in trouble with conservative ideologues. Going after deadbeat fathers is hardly a new idea.

Posted by Peter Leavitt | March 6, 2008 4:50 PM

Obama and his handlers have belatedly discovered he has a "Muslim problem".

And his earlier emphasis about being more cosmopolitan than American with a deep understanding of the "Oppressed" and other cultures through his time in a Muslim country and through advice of his Muslim kin in Indonesia and Africa played out well with the Multi-Culti loving Left but hasn't gone over so well with the rest of America. Who want a real American leader, with real American values. They do not want a transnationalist.

Jews in the media, with transnationalist sympathies of their own, were slow to pick up on this "subdued" Americaness Barack has...with his emphasis that he will be a better foreign policy leader because he is tapped into 3rd world wisdom outside our Borders.

The problem is compounded by people that INSIST that any religion is a person's own business and rage about anyone questioning Obamas ties to Islam as pure bigotry. That is based on two false premises:

1. That Islam might be a problem, but since Obama says he is Christian, it isn't a problem at all even though Obama is heavily engaged with Muslims who exert influence on his thinking...

2. That Islam is no different than any other religion - it just exists in a persons private values and faith. Except that is a fallacy. Islam is different. It manifests itself in every way in the temporal world of any Muslim country, shapes politics, and persists as a religion of domination and intolerant 2nd Class citizenship for non-Muslims under its power. It remains a religion that calls on followers to spread their dominance temporally by the sword or by demography, with a goal of conquering the whole world for Islam.

The drive for Obama to emphasize his American values and roots comes at the expense of his "superior foreign policy wisdom from listening to his Muslim friends" and even at the expense of marketing himself as "All authentic black" by virtue of him being mostly a product of his Muslim black deserting biodaddy's kid not his white American side.

Still, too many Muslim figures keep floating in and out of Obama stories to escape voters noticing and being concerned about it - as much of the Muslim world is now hostile to the West.

The precipitating thing may be news that the end source of paying for a good part of the value of Obama's mansion is not the emigre Syrian, Rezko - but a Sunni Iraqi and former Ba'ath Prty member and gunrunner to Saddam - billionaire Muslim Nadhmi Auchi. Who is already implicated in the Oil-For-Food scandal.

Besides the Biggie...the Saddam Hussein associate...Obama has other Muslims close to him.

1. His half-brother was sponsored out of Kenya to America, ran into troubled times, and converted to Islam with Obama's approval.

2. He named a NOI Black Muslim, Cynthia K. Miller, to be his Senate campaign treasure. She resigned in 2004, but he has other NOI on staff in DC and Chicago, most notably his high-ranking director of constituent services and hiring manager, Jennifer Mason.

3. He lived in a state senate district with the heaviest concentration of NOI members in America in Hyde Park. Also home to his constituent, Farrakan and Uof Chicago which was he and his wife's bread and butter for years. He worked closely with NOI then, and also worked with NOI during his community organizing days and represented members as a lawyer. Shakir Mohammed, a personal organizer for Elijah Mohammed then Farrakan, worked for Obama's State Senate campaigns.

4. His mother elected to stay the rest of her life in a Muslim country after divorcing her Indonesian husband, except for her academic travels and PhD. She was almost as absent from Obama's life as Obama Sr was.

5. Obama is long time friends with Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian-American and cofounder of the Electronic Intifada, though the two had a falling-out over Obama's sudden pro-Israel epiphany shortly before his Senate run, which Abunimah characterized as Barack needing to pacify his big donor billionaire Jewish Sugar daddies amd mommas in Chicago and Hollywood.

6. And Rezko, the Syrian..though Christian..has some explaining to do on why he was let go 27 million in debt to Nadhmi Auchi while making huge donations (not just to Obama) to politicians and also money-losing business deals that favored politicians with activity rising each time he got another 3.5 million stipend from Auchi. And why Rezko has so many social and business trips to meet Muslims in the ME (26 trips from 2002 to 2006). Also why Rezko took on Elijah Mohammed's son into Auchi=backed business ventures.

Posted by chris ford | March 6, 2008 5:31 PM

I've recently mentioned the old anti-Drug War issue of the National Review that Buckley put together - but that sort of thinking seems to be in short supply among the dim bulbs in today's conservative firmament.

Moe -- isn't that still NR's editorial position, roughly? I think Goldberg is actually somewhat unusual there for being FOR the drug war, mildly. The war on drugs is pretty popular with actual voters (I believe) and with mainstream politicians, but it's not that popular among the actual thinking classes on either side. I'll admit that Limbaugh (hah!), Coulter, etc. may well be full on drug warriors, but those folks aren't where conservative ideas originate, any more than Michael Moore and Al Franken are the brain trust of the left.

Posted by The Marquis of Carabas | March 6, 2008 6:08 PM

I've recently mentioned the old anti-Drug War issue of the National Review that Buckley put together - but that sort of thinking seems to be in short supply among the dim bulbs in today's conservative firmament.

Moe -- isn't that still NR's editorial position, roughly? I think Goldberg is actually somewhat unusual there for being FOR the drug war, mildly. The war on drugs is pretty popular with actual voters (I believe) and with mainstream politicians, but it's not that popular among the actual thinking classes on either side. I'll admit that Limbaugh (hah!), Coulter, etc. may well be full on drug warriors, but those folks aren't where conservative ideas originate, any more than Michael Moore and Al Franken are the brain trust of the left.

Posted by The Marquis of Carabas | March 6, 2008 6:15 PM

Deadbeat Dads were beat to death back in the 1990s. I overheard a fellow explain proudly how he was totally off the grid -- no driver's license, paid only in cash, never used a valid social security number, nothing that would let his various baby mamas get at his money.

Posted by Steve Sailer | March 6, 2008 6:36 PM

"Obama and his handlers have belatedly discovered he has a 'Muslim problem'."[sic]

I heard he has a black baby, too!

Posted by mullingitover | March 6, 2008 8:25 PM

A Muslim once brushed up against Chris Ford on the subway and he's had the heebie jeebies ever since.

Did you know Obama once stood with 30 yards of a woman wearing a hajib?!?!? Truly, a Manchurian candidate....

Posted by Freddie | March 6, 2008 11:01 PM

Declaring victory in the Global War on Drugs would be a dramatically effective way to improve the lot of the poor at home and abroad. As currently structured this Nanny State travesty is perhaps the most counterproductive major policy we have. But of course, that's for after the election.

Going after deadbeat dads is a dog-whistle for emphasis on personal responsibility. That's the language Obama's using and the main idea behind any decent welfare reform proposal. McCain's looks great. Obama could xerox it, and undoubtedly sell it in Congress much more effectively than could a President McCain.

Posted by Robert Powell | March 7, 2008 10:58 AM