The Problem with Obama's Father's Day Speech

American Thinker ^ | June 18, 2008 | Bruce Walker

[neverdem]

Barack Obama's gave a carefully calculated political speech on Father's Day calling attention to the problem of children growing up without a father.  In one important respect, Obama was absolutely right:  Far too many children are being raised without the attention, discipline and care of a father in the home.  But in another equally important respect, Obama took the easy, fast and safe path in his speech.

The problem of children being born into fatherless homes is, perhaps, the defining social problem of our times.  The starkest possible contrast with the fatherless children of America decried by Obama, was tacitly drawn by the tragic death of Tim Russert, whose reverence for his father was the lodestar of his wonderful life.

Why did Russert, whose home was humble, have such a dramatically different life?  Was it because of Big Russ?  Yes, of course, in one sense it was precisely because of Big Russ -- a father who was the model of all positive traits and all ennobling characteristics.  Those rubbed off on Tim.

But there is another difference in the parallel stories between Tim Russert and the child raised without a father.  That difference does not involve Big Russ as much as it does Tim Russert's mother.  She chose not to have a child out of wedlock.  She chose to love Big Russ.  She chose to make her marriage to him work, despite the hardships and problems that the family faced.  Without her choices and will, the life of Tim Russert would not have been the success that it was.

The problem of fatherless families is the problem of mothers as well as absent fathers. Children born out of wedlock, after all, are born because a woman decides that a good father is not that important.  The prior irresponsibility is not these young men, but the young woman who decides to have sex with them, intending or assuming that society, rather than a husband, bear the costs of her pregnancy.

In fact, it has long been possible for a woman to have children without having sexual relations at all.  Does our structure of welfare, food stamps, Medicaid and so forth provide any negative consequences for a woman who wants children as a hostage against society -- and who wants to be artificially inseminated?  No:  The plague of fatherless families could exist without a single unmarried man having sexual relations with a single unmarried woman. 

When young women have casual, indiscriminate sexual relations with a number of young men -- in many cases not even knowing these men beyond their first names -- then the catastrophe which follows is at least as much the fault of the mother as of the father.   If young women stopped having sex before marriage, then the problem of fatherless children would vanish. 

It is much easier, however, to pummel young men, than for Obama to lay blame for fatherless children where it also belongs:  on the reckless actions of those mothers who count upon taxpayers to step in the place of fathers.

As Tim Russert's mother could attest, marriage and raising children in a stable home is no picnic.  Staying married to a man like Big Russ, who works two jobs and has does not have much free time for his children or for his wife, requires a moral commitment for a mother and wife.  Her example, like the example of the wonderful Big Russ, made the life of Tim Russert profoundly different than the lives of so many children, black and white, born into "homes" which are not homes at all, but more like brothels.

What Obama should have talked about was the failure of mothers to understand the importance of fathers.  That is the heart of why we have fatherless homes.  Once, it was accepted that a child needed both a father and a mother to grow up right.  Now, it is politically correct to believe that a father who pays child support and visits his offspring every other week is sufficient.  My mother grew up with a father who was sick and who could contribute very little to his family, except for his paternal love -- but that love was incomparably more important than any wages that he could have earned.  

Money is a sideshow in raising good children, especially here in the richest nation in human history.  Big Russ worked his tail off, but it was not the money he brought home that transformed the life of Tim Russert:  It was the fact of his love, shown by his sweat. 

Marry before having children.  If you have children, stay married. That is a critical theme of Father's Day.  That should have been the heart of Obama's Father's Day speech.  He focused on the easy target of absent fathers, instead less chic idea of a traditional nuclear family.  Tim Russert could have told him how much fathers matter in the home, beside mothers, together loving and raising children.  That is the real message of Father's Day. 

[Tallguy]

Obama’s campaign is lucky that Obama’s mother is not alive to be asked these questions. I suspect that she’d have been Obama’s “Miss Lillian”, only a lot worse.

[tbpiper]

B.O. doesn’t what his daughter “punished with a baby” so abortion is ok. Why then is it not ok for a son to leave the scene to avoid being “punished with a baby”,also?

[Mr. Silverback]

What struck me about the speech was two things:

1. When Bill Cosby said this same stuff the black activist crowd was ready to tar and feather him.

2. Obama is a bad poster child for this. sure, he was raised in a home with a strong male role model eventually, but we’re talking about a guy whose Dad abandoned him at the age of two, and who may be POTUS next January. That’s sort of like sending Gene Simmons (ludicrously rich; hot, loving wife; two smart healthy kids and an apparently a quite happy life) out to tell people about how pre-marital sex will ruin your life. Sure, it’s true that it’s a bad idea to screw around before marriage, but Gene’s a guy who beat the system, not a cautionary tale.

[Mr. Silverback]

You ask an excellent question.

[Appleby]

Obama should have pointed out that the real problem is all the Black males who brag about how many women they have [bleep]ed yet could not pick them out of a line-up and have no idea whether or not they even have any children save that the girl brings suit and forces a DNA test on them. As usual, he chooses to look at the situation from an upscale-suburban-elite POV and act as if the real problem in the world is the work-life-balance of overworked stockbrokers.

Time to stop putting out fires and start talking about fire prevention; time to stop valuing yourself by how many wimmin you have impregnated and, like, get a full time job of some kind, maybe?

[Amelia]

Kind of reminds me of a debate I overheard a few years ago among a bunch of high school juniors and seniors over whether the boy or girl was most to blame if a girl got pregnant.

Finally, "Johnny" (who was rather a trouble-maker and not very academically inclined) effectively ended the debate with the following proclamation: "I think if a girl don't wanna get pregnant, she don't need to be spreading her legs, and if a boy don't wanna get a girl pregnant, he don't need to be sticking his thing between her legs."

Pretty well sums it up.

[frogjerk]

Gene Simmons (ludicrously rich; hot, loving wife; two smart healthy kids and an apparently a quite happy life)

I get the gist of your post but I don't think Gene Simmons is married. Also, I can't for the life of me believe why some women think this man is "hot" other than for his ca$h.

[Condor51]

The Problem with Obama's Father's Day Speech

There were many problems with his speech. But for some odd reason the MSM/DBM missed it while they laid prone on the floor praying at his feet, to wit:

• "Yes, we need more money for our schools, and more outstanding teachers in the classroom, and more after school programs for our children. Yes, we need more jobs and more job training and more opportunity in our communities."
  [How much *more money* does this mope want thrown down the toilet? How about ... oh ... a Bazillion?]

• "We need to help all the mothers out there who are raising these kids by themselves; the mothers who drop them off at school, go to work, pick up them up in the afternoon, work another shift, get dinner, make lunches, pay the bills, fix the house, and all the other things it takes both parents to do. So many of these women are doing a heroic job, but they need support. "
  [Oh well, there goes another Bazillion for taxpayers to eat}

• "That’s our responsibility as fathers. And by the way – it’s a responsibility that also extends to Washington. Because if fathers are doing their part; if they’re taking our responsibilities seriously to be there for their children, and set high expectations for them, and instill in them a sense of excellence and empathy, then our government should meet them halfway".
  (Lemme see if I got this right, I seem a tad confused? First we PAY the Black single moms for being irresponsible and having a brood by different daddies, and now Barry wants to PAY Black fathers for doing - WHAT THEY SHOULD BE DOING IN THE *&^&%$ING FIRST PLACE! Oh well, toss in another Bazillion suckers.]

• "We should be making it easier for fathers who make responsible choices and harder for those who avoid them. We should get rid of the financial penalties we impose on married couples right now, and start making sure that every dime of child support goes directly to helping children instead of some bureaucrat. We should reward fathers who pay that child support with job training and job opportunities and a larger Earned Income Tax Credit that can help them pay the bills."
  [Holy Crap, this one's a Two BAZILLION dollar tab for PAYING BLACK MEN FOR BEING RESPONSIBLE. This guy's a loon!]

• "We should expand programs where registered nurses visit expectant and new mothers and help them learn how to care for themselves before the baby is born and what to do after – programs that have helped increase father involvement, women’s employment, and children’s readiness for school."
  [I think we taxpayers are running out of Bazillions. Anyone up for a Gazillion?]

• "We should help these new families care for their children by expanding maternity and paternity leave, and we should guarantee every worker more paid sick leave so they can stay home to take care of their child without losing their income."
  [Woo-Hoo!!! MORE *FREE MONEY* FOR NOT WORKING!!!!]

• "We should take all of these steps ... But we should also know that even if we do; even if we meet our obligations as fathers and parents; even if Washington does its part too, we will still face difficult challenges in our lives. There will still be days of struggle and heartache."
  (Yeah you blithering idiot, because the taxpayers will be #@%&ing broke you ass, and they'll be no more, *FREE MONEY FOR BABY'S DADDY*]

Like I said, IMO there were a 'few problems' with his speech. But only if you're a taxpayer with a job.

[Mr. Silverback]

No, Simmons isn’t married. He and Shannon Tweed have been living together for about 20 years. He even says that the secret to is and Tweeds happiness is the fact that they aren’t married, and that marriage makes people unhappy on balance. My answer to that is, “Speak for youself, buddy.”

[Mr. Silverback]

Johnny is wise beyond his years.

[Churchillspirit]

Something else that struck me about Obama's speech was his equating fathers who are AWOL with fathers who are MIA.

Does he even know what MIA means?

[Amelia]

“Johnny” really had more sense than the rest of those kids put together. I hope he has done well. The year I taught him he was living with his grandparents, but the next year he went to live with his mother about 300 miles away.

[Mr. Silverback]

You make an excellent point and I’m surprised I hadn’t caught that myself. Yeah, it really is pretty silly to describe anyone shirking their responsibilities as “MIA” because you can’t be MIA while being away from what you’re suppposed to be doing.

[Churchillspirit]

I cannot believe that the responsible media has not picked up on Obama's MIA remark.An insult to those who are not at home through no fault of their own.

God bless all those who truly are MIA.

[Mr. Silverback]

I’ll mention it on my blog and give you credit.

[Churchillspirit]

Thank you.

[the invisib1e hand]

dear scrawny shit: if you think blacks are angry, just wait till you tangle with a disenfranchised dad.

[DMZFrank]

The problem with Obama, like most Dems, refuses to pinpoint the most important SINGLE cause of the cultural degradation in much of the black community. That cause is the destruction of the 2 parent black family. The precipitate cause of this tragedy was the welfare state created by LBJ and (mostly) the DemocRAT Party. But since Barack He who must not be middle named Obama wants to extend and expand the welfare state to all of America, he is careful to avoid drawing the correct conclusions. Oh he gives lip service to the notion of personal responsibility, but is extremely careful to avoid any implication of the DemocRAT Party.
When you point out that the Democratic Party’s entire history and policies have been antithetical to the best interests of the black community, and that to the extent that a major political party is responsible for any political and civil liberty that black people have, they owe it to the Republican Party, and even when you can prove that historically and factually the most amazing case of political cognitive dissonance then occurs.

The common response is, well that may be true but only the Democrats are “for us”. They usually go on to an entirely erroneous understanding of Nixon’s Southern strategy, a distortion of Berry Goldwater’s principled opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and completely ignore the fact that the Democratic Party was founded amongst other things, to extend slavery into the territory’s. The Democratic Party opposed 13, 14, and 15th amendment to the United States Constitution, reconstruction, every bit of foundational civil rights legislation from 1866 to 1968, instituted Jim Crow in the Southern states, refused to enact antilynching laws, and most importantly destroyed the two-parent black family with Lyndon Johnson’s welfare state. When you point out the fact that the modern-day Democratic Party is home to the pro-abortion forces that have enhanced the wildly disproportionate abortion rate in the black community, that doesn’t seem to register either.

The black community is in the throes of the worst political brainwashing outside of the Soviet Union and I just don’t know what can be done about it. I am constantly engaged in debates with people in my community and they are determined to vote for Democrats despite the clear and present evidence of their utterly destructive policies. The staggeringly high level of political cognitive dissonance amongst my people is frightening.

[rdb3]

The black community is in the throes of the worst political brainwashing outside of the Soviet Union and I just don’t know what can be done about it.

The Marxist Laboratory.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks neverdem.

Conservatives must act
American Thinker | June 17, 2008 | James Lewis
Posted on 06/17/2008 5:35:25 AM PDT by vietvet67
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2032214/posts

Justice? - Haditha again
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Posted on 06/19/2008 7:32:03 AM PDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033327/posts