Want Fewer Deadbeat Dads? Read On!

If Barack Obama accomplished anything with his speech on deadbeat dads Sunday, it was hopefully to create a national conversation on the issue. So.....Here's my two cents. If you want to start the process of making good, caring fathers more prevalent, let's start with the notion this isn't just a black problem. Yes, folks, white dads can be deadbeats too. That makes it an American problem. 

Then, let's look at how the country has dealt with other problems, say, the issue of smoking. America has gone from acceptance to tolerance to intolerance to outright rejection of cigarettes. People who smoke are viewed as a negative exception, no longer the rule. How did this happen? By the skilled use of media, specifically, media aimed at young people.

Think about how that would work if the goal was to spread the concept of responsible fatherhood. Public service announcements could be created that showed young men rejecting their peers who don't support their children. Young women would refuse to date young men for the same reason. These are themes that transcend race, and while the results wouldn't be seen overnight, eventually the message would sink in.

If we're serious about responsible fatherhood (and motherhood, for that matter), speeches may well be the first step. Action should be next.

Obama Pivots

His appearance at a Chicago church wasn't well publicized. It wasn't even on the church's Website. Yet Barack Obama's Father's Day address at Chicago's Apostolic Church of God made headlines. First, Obama chose not to speak at the church he just left, Trinity United. Second, he picked a hot button topic, the need for fathers, especially black fathers, to step up and be more responsible. 

The theme isn't new. Bill Cosby has received both praise and criticism for his remarks on the subject. Obama himself has brought it up before. Yet there was new resonance in his words this time. He is now, after all, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. "Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father", says Obama. He used his own experiences as a child and a father to drive the point home.

The effect of his words on fathers themselves will be tough to gauge. Demanding that any group take responsibility for their actions doesn't solve much in the short term. However, politically, it was a brilliant stroke. How better to make yourself known to a skeptical public than to talk about your own less than perfect background? Obama knows about the effect of absentee fathers because he had one. He even went so far as to say he's an imperfect father himself.

Black folks know what Barack Obama was talking about. Let's see how others respond.

Tax Wars

In case you aren't already aware, we're beginning to enter a "fallow" period in political coverage. The presidential nominees of both parties are set, and the national conventions are still a couple of months away. Congress will soon be in recess, so there won't even be much inside the Beltway chatter to report on. Why else would taxes, something most Americans hate but hate to talk about, come center stage?

Barack Obama and John McCain have spent the better part of this week beating each other up over their tax proposals. This is better than questioning each others' patriotism, or who wears a flag lapel pin, but it still makes peoples' heads hurt. McCain is trying hard to paint Obama as just another "tax and spend liberal". Problem is, McCain's tax proposal sounds an awful lot like the one person he's trying to run away from, President Bush.

A non partisan group has studied both plans, and says (no surprise here) that neither is perfect. However, there is some food for thought. Obama's plan would actually reduce taxes on the middle class, that is, families earning from $37,000 to $66,000 dollars. The reduction would be just over $1000. John McCain's plan would also lower taxes for the same group, but only by $319 dollars. In fact, the biggest beneficiaries of McCain's proposal would be those making $2.8 million dollars a year and up.

McCain's people argue that the analysis by the Tax Policy Center is flawed, but as mentioned, the group is non partisan. McCain argues Obama wants the greatest tax increase since World War II. The Tax Policy Center says that's an exaggeration. Republicans have used taxes like a bludgeon against a succession of Democrats, state and national.

McCain may have to find something else.