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Visualize what Pres. Obama has said about the positive changes since he took office. Why didn’t Democrats launch a national ad campaign to paint the picture prior to the midterm elections?
Should Dems have launched an “America Is Back” advertisement similar to the Chrysler spot in 2011? Would it have made a difference in the outcome of the midterms?
Roland Martin paints the picture Democrats should have painted leading up to the 2014 midterm elections which could have helped them win on election day.
Al Jazeera America‘s Ali Velshi and ALF-CIO Chief Economist William Spriggs joinedRoland Martin on “NewsOne Now” to analyze the latest jobs numbers. The U.S. economy added 214,000 new jobs, while the jobless rate dipped to 5.9% and Black unemployment edged down to 10.9%.
Velshi told Martin “the number of jobs we’re creating every month is exactly the number of jobs Mitt Romney said he would create when he became president. Obama said the same thing. The fact is we have a different problem. It’s not just creating the number of jobs; it’s not economic growth; we’re at 3.6% that’s fantastic. Interest rates are low, home prices are up, the stock market is up 40% in two years.”
Velshi added “… the new normal is that that economy doesn’t split as fairly as it used to. If you are on the bottom half of that economy you are going to struggle more. Velshi said, “a rising tide no longer lifts all boats.”
Rev. James Meeks joined Roland Martin on “NewsOne Now” to discuss why he and a group of Black pastors in Chicago backed Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Raunerover Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn.
Meeks told Martin on “NewsOne Now,” “The Democrats in 2012 passed $7 billion tax increase and didn’t include any money for education.” According to Meeks this bill was supposed to direct $2 billion towards education.
He added, “I think that African American people are so wedged into one party, even if they break their promise we don’t ever hold them accountable and so they know they can come to our community make any promise, break it and then we’re going to have to vote for them anyway because we always vote Democratic.”
Meeks said, “… this time I wanted to try to show people that there are some options and we don’t have to always vote Democratic.”
Meeks said he was willing to put everything on the line to secure funds for Illinois schools. Meeks told Martin “we’ve wasted 14 years in our state with the same argument, how are we doing to fund our schools. We just closed 56 schools last year because the state has not appropriated enough money … and nobody is holding the party that is in control [accountable].”
Meeks said, “… for some reason education is not the priority of the Democrats here in this state of Illinois and so, we got to make a move.”
Author Frank A. Bryant shared how he turned his life around and avoided jail and death to become a Morehouse graduate on “NewsOne Now.” His children’s book, “From Menace to Morehouse,” is a kid-friendly tale that describes his misadventures during grade school when he was a boy.
Bryant said he bounced around between six elementary schools, two middle schools, two high schools and went to nine colleges before he finally started to get his life together. Bryant told Roland Martin the catalyst for him turning his life around was the murder of two of his friends. He said at that point he decided to “make a change because he didn’t want to be next.”
Bryant has an interesting perspective on troubled youth. He explained his mother was a teacher and that his father was a captain at a juvenile detention facility. Bryant said, “I would actually see kids start in my mom’s school and end up in my father’s prison. I had a first class seat of the school to prison pipeline.” This drove him to want to work with at-risk youth to help them avoid some of the pitfalls to which he fell prey.
Actor RonReaco Lee, one of the stars of “Survivor’s Remorse,” joined Roland Martin on “NewsOne Now” to talk about the new hit series on Starz.
“Survivor’s Remorse” follows Cam Calloway played by Jessie T. Usher, a basketball phenom in his early 20s who is suddenly thrust into the limelight after signing a multi-million dollar contract with a professional basketball team in Atlanta. Lee plays the role of Reggie Vaughn who is trying to keep Calloway’s finances in order.
The season finale airs Saturday, November 8th on Starz at 9PM ET and according to Lee, the show has been picked up for a second season beginning in 2015.
All that and more in this special edition of the NewsOne Now Audio Podcast.
