I still believe in President Barack Obama’s “Hope and Change” for America and his agenda for moving “Forward” in a second term as President

By Juanita Bratcher

Editor & Publisher, CopyLine Magazine

 

In a 2008 interview, I was asked by one of three Caucasians conducting the interview who I thought would be the best choice for President of the United States in the upcoming Presidential Election. My response was Barack Obama then U.S. Senator from Illinois.

“Why Barack Obama?” I was asked.

“Because he’s a breath of fresh air; he brings a refreshing change on the issues, his overall agenda…unlike the other candidates who are all veteran politicians hashing out the same old rhetoric and agendas,” I responded.

At the time, Obama hadn’t been on the national scene for that long and wasn’t that well-known in Illinois politics before his tenure in the U.S. Senate. However, he made a positive splash as a speaker during the Democratic National Convention in 2004 which was heard by millions around the globe and thereby, gave him a standing presence on the national stage.

From my perspective, there was just something different about Barack Obama. He was not your regular run-of-the-mill politician – he had excellence in oratory and in expressing himself; and though a newcomer, he had an enlightening view on the issues with a strong message of change.

During the time of my aforementioned interview in 2008, I had been an Investigative News Reporter, Author & Publisher for 32 years, covering politics as well as a wide-range of other subjects for various newspapers, my radio and cable TV shows and my own CopyLine Magazine. I was a seasoned, veteran Journalist, you can say, who paid close attention to the most intricate of things. My mind had been trained for that…by me of course. I always wanted to be on top of things so I could factually pass on valid and factual information to the best of my ability to others so they could have enough information to form their own opinions about things.

In 2008, CopyLine Magazine endorsed Barack Obama for President. It was the first and only political endorsement the magazine had ever made. Nonetheless, CopyLine will make several endorsements in the upcoming November 6, 2012 General Election, not only for candidates running in Illinois but in some key races around the country.

As a connoisseur of politics and one that keeps a proverbial eye on happenings and is very attentive to the political arena, I have watched Obama and his administration policies on a daily basis as with happenings in Congress. I, like many other political junkies, have a general idea of what is taking place politically in this country. And it would be hard-pressed for the wool to be pulled over our eyes in the way of deceit, lies and distortions by some who prey on the uninformed – those who are not interested in politics or don’t steadfastly keep up with what is happening in the political arena news wise.

Some have nitpicked and said very disparaging things about the President – there are the Birthers – Businessman Donald Trump at the head of the list – and word usage in describing the President as a socialist, un-American and a bunch of other crap…simply lies. When the 2012 presidential campaign got underway, I knew from the get go that Obama’s campaign had better prepare itself for a barrage of nasty attacks and mudslinging in the 2012 General Election. I also knew that the “spin doctors” would be “free and loose” with the truth. But I also hoped that voters would see it for what it really is and not be fooled by their lying shenanigans.

After observing a salvo of nasty ads and campaign rhetoric thrown at his Republican opposition in the Republican primary campaign – negative talk and negative ads – it was apparent that Mitt Romney would try the same tactics on the Obama Campaign in the General Election and that the campaign had better be prepared for a dirtier barrage of campaign rhetoric and a lot more mudslinging.

One could almost get a clear picture of what the Romney Campaign would set out to do to the Obama Campaign if they had followed the primary campaign Romney embarked on with his Republican opponents, most notably Newt Gingrich and Ron Santorum.

The negative salvos Mitt Romney’s campaign launched against fellow Republican presidential opponents Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were mild-mannered in comparison to their waging attack campaign against President Barack Obama.

The nasty slurs began quickly and, certainly the rhetoric is expected to get even far more blatant in the winding down days of the 2012 Presidential campaign now just 17 days away. In Obama’s 2008 run for the White House, Right Wing Conservatives tried to tie Barack Obama at the hip with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and former Weatherman William “Bill” Ayers. But in 2012 they have all but thrown everything at Obama, including the kitchen sink.

Talk Show Host Glenn Beck on his show accused the President of having a “deep-seated hatred for White people”, and Hank Williams, Jr., in an appearance on Fox & Friends, compared the President to Hitler – both are absolute lies. Obviously, it is a tactic to divide and conquer.

Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal asked his GOP colleagues in the House to pray for Obama’s death. There have been several mean-spirited words about the President. In the very near future, I will outline many of those remarks in an article – just keeping it real.

In an October 4, 2011 article in CopyLine Magazine, the Rev. Harold Bailey, President and Founder of Probation Challenge and Probation Challenge Newsmagazine, shared an interview he had with an author who asked for anonymity in regards to his feelings about Obama’s presidency. A reprint of the article was posted on www.copylinemagazine.com website.

“I’m quite old,” the author stated. ”I’ve seen so many presidents. Some were feared, some were hated, some were adored, some popular and some not. But all of them, without exception, were treated with the highest respect deserving the Office of the President of the United States. That is, until a black man won the right to occupy this office.

“For half of this country, he was ‘that one’. No matter how big and clear his victory was. No matter how smart he is. No matter how decent he is. No matter what a true patriot he is. No matter how optimistic and positive his vision for America was. All that didn’t matter; because at the end of the day, he was still Black.” 

He talked about the “ugliness” that took place after Obama was sworn-in to office.

“I expected that his winning the Presidency would bring out some ugliness, but it’s been far worse than I imagined. The racism coming from the Right is obviously clear and shameless…”

He ended his article with a profound declaration: “Sometimes, they make me feel ashamed to be a white man!!”

In a new book, “I Hope He Fails”, by Robert J. Walker, he theorizes that the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States of America has served as a catharsis for the resurgence of racism and hate groups in America and that these two entities are being fueled by the rightwing media – as he courageously takes on the biggest names in conservative talk radio and TV – going where even politicians and the mainstream media dare not go.

According to the press release by BlackNews.com, a Public Relations firm, the author wrote the book after seeing paraphernalia being sold on the Internet using the slogan, “I Hope He Fails,” referring to Rush Limbaugh’s statement made shortly after Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election to become the first African American elected President of the United States.

When asked what inspired him to write the book, the press release pointed out, Walker, who considers himself a working class educator stated: “I am not a politician or a media pundit. I am an educator, a working class teacher. I was not in the country during the 2008 election. I was in Ethiopia, Africa training teachers. I voted in the 2008 election by absentee ballot. When I returned to America, I was surprised and hurt by all the anger and false accusations hurled at the President by the conservative right. That is what inspired me to write this book. I wrote I Hope He Fails as a play on Rush Limbaugh’s words – to defuse his statement and as a trumpet call to awaken people of faith and goodwill who have fallen asleep after the 2008 election. If those of us who went to the polls in 2008 to elect President Obama, especially those of us in a minority group; whether religion, race, gender, or sexual preference, if we want to continue to have a voice in this government, we must recharge the zeal we had during the 2008 campaign. We must rally around the President and push back against those on the radical far right and Tea Party movement who want to take the country back to the 1950s when everything in America was, ‘for whites only.’ “

Those who are distorting, making negative and misstatements about the Obama Administration were at it before his win to the presidency and continue to do so.

In a previous article, I noted that almost on a daily basis, a pack of lies, innuendoes and half-truths are being told and circulated by various individuals about the Obama Administration’s policies on energy, foreign policy, health care, the economy and anything else they can put a slant on. These lies are being told with devious intent – to downright confuse and misinform some in the general public that don’t know or understand the truth and facts about what is really going on pertaining to the Obama Administration’s policies.

“These manufactured lies, half-truths and innuendoes about the Obama Administration’s policies make their round daily through the news media, cable TV and the Internet. The bottom line is that these devious messengers/villains deliberately manufacture lies and half-truths – knowing full-well what they’re doing, void of enough monitoring by the press (the mainstream media) to challenge, expose and take these lies on.

Many of these incendiary voices appeal to people’s frustration and hatred.

“These incendiary voices would lead people to believe that President Barack Obama is responsible for high gas prices at the pump when in reality gas prices are set by the price of crude oil. Further, crude oil is a worldwide commodity. It would probably be the same if a president other than Obama was sitting in the White House making decisions.

“Name calling and relentless criticism are not cures for the economy or anything else, and neither will get the job done.

“But it’s amazing how these incendiary voices relentlessly badger President Barack Obama and at the same time try to kill-off his agenda to bring stability to the economy.

Idiotic and insensitive words usually come from the mouths of mean-spirited and insensitive people. Who gives a crap about evil and mean-spirited people? There will always be mean-spirited and idiotic people in this world. That’s something they will have to deal with within themselves unless they say or do something that brings them in opposition with the confines of the law.

Early on in President Barack Obama’s Administration, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said that “the single most important thing (he) wants to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President.”

McConnell was not alone in his effort to make Obama a one-term president, certainly there were many other Republicans in leadership positions that had the same idea – to try and browbeat President Obama out of office.

South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint said the Republican Party would make President Obama’s health care legislation “his waterloo.”

As stated in a previous CopyLine article: “Making Obama a one-term president is certainly their prerogative, no one is questioning that, but there are so many other priority issues that are being left on the back burner. Certainly, that energy can be used elsewhere like dealing with many of the pressing problems that are facing this country and in special need of attention – a lagging economy, a debt crisis years-down-the-road-long, an outcry for jobs, housing foreclosures. Those are issues that need to be dealt with – along with goals to move this country forward – creating jobs to put people back to work, and not of wrecking the country and running it in a ditch just to make Obama a one-term president.”

It’s better to move forward with President Barack Obama and his agenda for a second term rather than gamble on an etch-a-sketch candidate and flip-flopper trying to replace him that has had more etch-a-sketch moments than any presidential contender in American history; and has yet to release years of his income tax returns publicly.

Obama has shown great strength, resilience, character and intellect throughout the campaign. He has kept a cool head in spite of campaign attacks and false accusations by right wingers, Tea Partiers who not only disrespect him but also disrespect the Office of the Presidency.

 My prediction: Regardless of what the polls state,  Obama will win this election  on the basis of his consistent messages, his policies and agenda for America than an etch-a-sketch candidate who is out of touch with the American people and thinks that 47% of the American people are freeloaders.

Juanita Bratcher is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of www.copylinemagazine.com. She is the author of several books, songwriter and poet. Bratcher has been a Journalist for more than 35 years covering politics, education and a wide-range of other topics.