By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Nov. 3, 2009 – Governor races in New Jersey and Virginia are being watched closely by Democrats and Republicans to see if the “Obama influence”  impacts the outcome by delivering a win for either candidate.  

Its doubtful President Obama will determine the outcome of either race, but the fact that he traveled to New Jersey five times to campaigned for the Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine can’t be ignored.  In Virginia the president wasn’t as visible for Creigh Deeds and his campaign was slow to accept help from Pennsylvania Ave.

Deeds is trailing in recent polls by double-digits and appears to be headed for defeat by his rival Republican challenger Bob McDonnell.  But it might be too soon to count him out; Deeds won the primary trailing his Democratic challengers and bested both with a sizeable margin.   

Other Key races to watch around the country with African American conternders include Detroit and Atlanta. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is pretty much a shoo-in but Atlanta, for the first time in 35 years, may elect a White Mayor, Mayor Norwood.

More: See other Key races to watch on CNN.Com

Few races in the country have African-American’s in contention, but one to watch is in California.  Kamala Devi Harris (D) is running for California attorney general in 2010.  In 2003 Harris became the first woman to become San Francisco district attorney the first Black woman to serve as District Attorney in California’s history.

Another California political powerhouse, Rep. Maxine Waters (D) released a statement in response to the pending investigation by the House Ethics Committee (see my Blog Oct. 30) regarding her influence with federal agencies on behalf of a minority owned bank that received bailout dollars.

 “My longtime advocacy on behalf of women- and minority-owned institutions is well known and appreciated by these institutions, which have been historically denied access to government regulators to address their concerns.

“I am confident that as the investigation moves forward the panel will discover that there are no facts to support allegations that I have acted improperly or violated the Code of Official Conduct or any law, rule, regulation or other standard of conduct in performing my duties and discharging my responsibilities as a United States Representative.”

On a lighter note, Monday First Lady Michelle Obama made an emotional announced she was launching a mentoring program to give local high school girls access to women at the White House.

Mrs. Obama was joined by 13 of the young ladies in the State Dining Room who will be matched with White House staffers as mentors including senior advisers Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes.

Mrs. Obama said, “We thought, what we can do to make the White House different, to make kids in our own new neighborhood know that the White House is a place for them?” She also told the   young women, “That when you get to this position in your life that you do the same thing for somebody else.”

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Oct. 21, 2009 – First Lady Michelle Obama is stepping out this week to promote healthy living habits and highlight October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  

The First Lady has held events touting the importance of good nutrition and exercise before and today she’ll host a Healthy Kids Fair on the South Lawn alongside Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to bring the message to the American people.   One of the early events at the White House with Mrs. Obama was the announcement and tilling of the soil for her vegetable garden on the South Lawn alongside local elementary school students. 

The office of the first lady said Wednesday’s events will also involve local public school student and their families who’ll be on hand to hear from the chefs and nutritionist called in from around the country to demonstrate healthy cooking and tips on preparing affordable meals.

On Friday, the first lady will host another event to draw attention Breast Cancer Awareness month along with how importance health care is for women with pre-existing condition.  The first lady has been supportive of her husbands plans for reforming health care and one of the policy he’s been firm about is stopping insurance companies from using a persons past illness to drive up thier  insurance cost.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

Oct. 1, 2009 – The president held a meeting with his national security team Wednesday to discuss the progress and the challenges the U.S. is facing in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today he’ll leave for Copenhagen to plug the U.S. as the host of the 2016 Olympics.

First lady Michelle Obama stops to talk to waiting reporters as Pat Ryan, third right, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chicago 2016 looks on. Mrs. Obama meets with International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in Copenhagen,Wednesday as part of the Chicago 2016 bid team who are competing with Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio de Janeiro for the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The OIC will vote on Friday, Oct. 2, in Copenhagen. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Critics this week have charged the president is spreading himself too thin and that he needs to stay put and worry about health care reform, two wars and the economy.

Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told reporters Tuesday, “I think at a time of recession, at a time where Americans have expressed rather significantly their concerns and frustrations over the course of the spring and summer about health care, about the economy, about a host of domestic issues, even international issues, I think that this trip, while nice, is not necessary for the president.”

But the White House disagrees.  During Wednesday’s press briefing, Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, was asked if all the issues with Iran, Afghanistan, and health care created an “extraordinary week.”  Gibbs said, the administration has been juggling a number of issues since taking office on January 21, and this week was no exception.

“I think this has been an extraordinary eight months. What did we wake up to on the 21st of January?  An economy that was sliding off the cliff; a banking system that your paper had written about that could fail; any number of international challenges,” Gibbs said.

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader John Boehner added his voice to the chorus of critics. “Listen, I think it’s a great idea to promote Chicago, but he’s the president of the United States, not the mayor of Chicago. 

“And the problems we have here at home affect all Americans and that’s where his attention ought to be,” Boehner said.

One of those important issues is how the U.S. deals with al Qaeda. It was the topic of a closed door meeting with the president and his national security team.  Few details were released, but the White House released a brief summary stating, “As the U.S. aggressively confronts al Qaeda and its leadership around the world, the President has set a clear goal in Afghanistan: to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al Qaeda and their extremist allies.”

“When it comes to decisions as important as keeping this country safe and putting our troops into harm’s way, the President has made it clear that he will rigorously assess our progress.”

The president will join the first lady in Copenhagen Thursday, but it’s doubtful his critics will go away.  It’s also doubtful his absence for a few days will be more than symbolic in asserting he isn’t working on other issues at hand.
 
What do you think? Should the president be promoting the Olympics coming to the U.S. or minding the store here in Washington?

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

July 28, 2009 – First Lady Michelle Obama joined in to help promote the need for a health care reform and tout the success of stimulus money as she headlined the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a community health center in Bowling Green, Virginia. 

First lady Michelle Obama cuts the ribbon to open the Caroline Family Practice in Bowling Green, Va.

The Caroline Family Practice Clinic received $1.3 million in federal economic stimulus funds.  The clinic is located in a rural part of Virginia and is housed in a renovated grocery store thanks to those federal dollars.

Expressing concern over the shortage of primary care doctors, Mrs. Obama congratulated the health care providers in Caroline County for foregoing wealth to enter into community service medicine.

“I remember Marcus Welby; that’s the doctor everybody wanted to be,” Michelle Obama said, referring to the television doctor with a bedside manner which included house calls on the popular ABC television series of the same name that aired from 1969 – 1976. 

Before the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, the first lady listened as doctors, dentists and medical students discussed their experiences as health care providers.

 The Caroline Family Practice is the third community center the first lady has visited to promote preventive health care.  During the opening Tuesday she also used the opportunity to put in a plug for the president’s reform of health care.

Last month she announced that $850 million in stimulus money was being released to help clinics like this one to provide care nationwide.

“We wind up spending billions of dollars each year to treat diseases that – for far less money – we could prevent in the first place,” she said.

The first lady made her remarks to about 100 folks crowded into the clinic that included the first lady of Virginia, Anne Holton and her daughter, Annella Kaine, the daughter of Gov. Tim Kaine, along with the oldest resident of Caroline County, who is 109.

The first lady’s office said these visits are part of her effort to highlight programs that meet a community’s needs for primary medical care.

Do you think the first lady is a good spokesperson for her husband’s policies?

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

July 2, 2009 – Next week President Obama and the first lady will travel to Russia, Italy and Ghana where they will meet, greet, and dine with heads of state and deliver a series of addresses laying out his foreign policy. 

The White House offered up a preview of the trip that will begin July 6 in Moscow and end with a tour of the capital of Ghana and a speech on development and democracy. 

The overall reaching goal for this trip will be to focus on economic, political, and global issues important to the United States and members of the G-8.  Some of those issues include climate control, non-proliferation, and assessments of the global economic climate.

 Obama wants to “reset relations” with Russia his aids say and hopes to emerge from a Moscow summit with progress toward reducing both nations’ nuclear arsenals and changing the way the Russian people view the United States.

In Russia, Italy and Ghana the president is expected to talk about a large range of issues including climate change, international trading systems and food safety.  Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs Michelle Gavin said it’s important Africa is also at the table.  

Africa needs to be “integrated in global and foreign policy,” Gavin said.  Ghana is important to this trip she said because the country has demonstrated strong governance, economic development and stability.  She praised their last election where “power transferred peacefully,” she said.

The president and First Lady Michelle Obama will arrive in Ghana on July 11 and will tour the capital city Accra.  Obama will meet with the Ghana’s newley elected President Atta Mills and is expected to deliver a speech highlighting the country’s improvement in over-all governance.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 22, 2009 – The First Lady Michelle Obama sent a special message this weekend telling folks to “celebrate responsible fatherhood and the men who’ve had the courage to step up,” including her father and her husband.

“My father, Frasier Robinson, was the rock of our family. Although he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion and our hero,” she wrote.

While the president’s relationship with his father wasn’t the same, it still played a great influence on the type of father the president is today, she observed.  “Barack didn’t have my good fortune — his father left when he was just two years old. But he has always been determined to give our daughters what he never had, and he values being a good father more than any other accomplishment in his life.”

The president has written and spoken openly about his relationship with his father and the importance of fathers taking responsibility: his message this year was the same.

“In many ways, I came to understand the importance of fatherhood through its absence—both in my life and in the lives of others. I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill,” the president said.

“That is why we need fathers to step up, to realize that their job does not end at conception; that what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child but the courage to raise one.”

Mrs. Obama’s message on Sunday introducing her husband’s Father’s Day message continued the call for responsibility.  “So today, on this 100th anniversary of Father’s Day, take a moment to celebrate responsible fatherhood and the men who’ve had the courage to step up, be there for our families, and provide our children with the guidance, love and support they need to fulfill their dreams,” she said.

It was clear the “first parents” want to see more fathers take an active role in the lives of their children.  That message was delivered loud and clear.

But it may be a challenge for some fathers. According to a study by  Families and Living Arrangements: 2006 , there were 12.9 million one-parent families in 2006 — 10.4 million single-mother families and 2.5 million single-father families.  Among African Americans, 63 percent of households are headed by single-parents, almost double their White counterparts.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 18, 2009 – First Lady Michelle Obama harvested 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 pounds of peas from the 1,100-square-foot L-shaped Summer Vegetable Garden on the South Lawn, with the assistance of 36 fifth-graders from Bancroft Elementary School.

It's Time for the harvest in the White House Summer Garden.

It was fitting the culmination of the ongoing project took place with the District of Columbia students who helped turn the soil in April when the first lady introduced the garden to promote healthy eating and organic farming.

“It tastes great doesn’t it when the vegetables are fresh?” she asked. “We all have to have vegetables every single day, every day,” she told the kids gathered.

Mrs. Obama demonstrated by eating raw sweet peas from the garden. “Too many kids are consuming high-calorie food with low nutritional value, and they’re not getting enough exercise,” she said. “My hope is that this garden, through it we can continue to make the connection between what we eat and how we feel and how healthy we are.”

Dressed in coral slacks, striped t-shirt, floral sweater and sneakers, Mrs. Obama knelt in the dirt and supervised the children in cutting several varieties of lettuce. “Today is really the culmination of a lot of hard work,” she said.

Assistant White House chef Sam Kass said the garden has also produced beans, kale, collard greens, chard and herbs. I was pleased to hear about the kale and collard greens, two of my favorites. 

Even the cupcake treats for the kids today kept the healthy theme intact. The decorated cupcakes were baked with honey instead of sugar. There was no contest between raw peas and cupcakes, however; the cupcakes won hands-down.

The first lady acknowledged that fresh fruits and vegetables are difficult for families in some urban and rural communities to obtain. But she praised community garden projects for “taking matters into their own hands.”

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see more backyard gardens if the economy doesn’t pick up. Just think, the United States could return to its agricultural roots – after all, it worked before.

“If it’s fresh and grown locally, it’s probably going to taste better,” she said.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 17, 2009 – It doesn’t look like Rusty DePass’s half-hearted apology for calling an escaped gorilla an “ancestor” of the first lady is going over well in the state of South Carolina.

Monday began with an outpouring of apologies across the state from Republicans who realized this was a political barn fire that needed to be put out.

The South Carolina NAACP president Lonnie Randolph is demanding a “proper” apology.  I think he wants one from DePass that doesn’t include remarks Mrs. Obama said the same thing first: understandable.   

I’m not surprised Randolph is outraged, but I am surprised there are Republicans who have realized this isn’t a win for them and they need to avoid creating another “wedge issue” that will leave the GOP on the outs with the folks infuriated by the comment.

I was glad to hear from Gov. Mark Sanford who said, “The comment was offensive, uncalled for, and completely inappropriate.”   This is the same guy who did a little name calling himself when he declined stimulus package money for his state.   

Even the newly-elected GOP chairperson in South Carolina, Karen Floyd, said, “Comments like the one in question are unacceptable, run contrary to the spirit and ideals of the Republican Party and have no place in public discourse.”

But the mayor of Columbia, where DePass resides, went even further.  Mayor Bob Coble issued a statement over the weekend condemning DePass’s remarks, and on Monday he sent a letter of apology to the first lady:

Dear First Lady:

I want to apologize for the comment that was made this past Friday by a person from my City. The comment was both hateful and inappropriate. The comment has been condemned by numerous fair minded people of all races and political parties. I want to personally express my deep disappointment that such a terrible statement would be associated with Columbia, South Carolina.

Columbia is a City of the New South. We have a history of working across all racial and ethnic lines to seek common ground and purpose. We take pride that our City has been held up by the noted author Richard Florida as an open and accepting City that is part of the global economy. We have a track record of building a diverse community. In the 1960’s, leaders came together to create the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council to guide us through integration. In the 1990’s, we filed a lawsuit to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds.

We know that you, President Obama, and your family have been to South Carolina and Columbia many times. Please know that we welcome you back anytime. I apologize on behalf of Columbia for the comment that was made. While the comment was made by one individual, we know that in this internet and twenty-four hour media cycle, impressions can be made quickly. I wanted to state firmly and emphatically that we reject such a hateful and insensitive comment that does not reflect our City.

Very truly yours,

Mayor Bob Coble

The city of Columbia and state of South Carolina owe Coble a high-five.

By Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 5, 2009 – President Obama delivered  remarks in Germany Friday morning following his tour of the World War II concentration camp Buchenwald. “These sites have not lost their horror with the passage of time,” Obama said. 

The president alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel told those gathered, “More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished.”  This visit follows Obama’s speech in Cairo where he addressed efforts to resolve the Israeli and Palestinian conflict with hopes of working toward separate states in the region.  Merkel applauded Obama for his work toward progress in Mideast peace.  

After the tour, Obama was flying to Landstuhl medical hospital for private visits with U.S. troops recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He will end the day in Paris where he will be joined by the first lady and daughters Malia and Sasha.  The family will have a brief vacation in the City of Lights after commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Allies’ D-Day invasion in France.

While the president has been solo for the majority of this trip, his wife Michelle will need to bring the president up to date on recent changes in the East Wing since his departure.  The first lady announced Thursday that her chief-of-staff Jackie Norris would be stepping down and will be replaced by long-time Chicago friend Susan Sher. 

Norris started with the Obama campaign during the Iowa caucus and is ending her five-month reign with an appointment to senior advisor to the Corporation for National and Community Service.  

Sher, a long-time friend of the first lady, was already working as associate counsel to the president.  Mrs. Obama and Sher worked together years earlier at the University of Chicago Hospital and have a close relationship.

Norris, with extensive campaign experience, met and worked with Mr. Obama in Iowa, which clearly gave her an inside for the appointment.  Norris told the National Journal three weeks ago, “The First Lady and I really hit it off; we have a lot in common. And you learn a lot about a person when you sit in a minivan and drive across Iowa. So, you know, it was a great interview, really, a great interview process because you work together in high pressure settings towards a common goal.”

Norris will remain inside the political circle of Washington in her new post – not  to mention her husband John Norris who is chief-of-staff for [former governor of Iowa] Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Pamela Gentry, Senior Political Analyst

June 3, 2009 – First Lady Michelle Obama delivered the commencement address Wednesday to graduates of the Washington Mathematics Science Technology Public Charter School. The first lady said she came because she wanted to “celebrate the achievements of students” in her new hometown and because student Jasmine Williams wrote a letter inviting her.

The first lady told the graduates, all of them Black and Latino, to look forward without self-doubt.  Comparing her own personal story along with the president’s political ambitions, she encouraged the students not to set limits.  “We all felt a little like you might feel right now. We all had doubts. We all have doubts,” she told the 98 young men and women about to receive their diplomas. 

“But in the end we were all more than ready,” Obama insisted. 

The first lady, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, used the opportunity to praise another Princeton graduate, Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  “I don’t know if you know about this phenomenal woman — she’s the President’s nominee for the Supreme Court — and she’s the first Hispanic woman to be considered for the position.  The first,” Obama said.

Mrs. Obama recalled Sotomayor’s comments to the students, [That] “when she stepped on that campus, she said — and this is a quote — she said she felt like ‘a visitor landing in an alien country.’ And she said she never raised her hand her first year because — and this is a quote — she ‘was too embarrassed and too intimidated to ask questions.’”

This was the first time Mrs. Obama spoke about Sotomayor’s nomination, and she made it clear her full support was behind the nomineee.   

Principal Mark Holbrook said 99 percent of the graduates have been accepted at two- and four-year colleges.  Mrs. Obama offered them advice for the college journey. “Never, ever sit in silence, ever.  That first day, raise your hand, use your voice, and ask a question.  Don’t be afraid to be wrong, don’t be afraid to sound unclear, because understand this is the only way you’ll learn.”

The graduation was held at Howard University where some graduates will be attending in the Fall.  Other students have been accepted at Georgetown, Syracuse, Morehouse College and the University of Virginia. 

“So graduates of 2009, with a solid education foundation and a firm hold of your dreams, and with the support of your families and a willingness to work hard, I can assure you, you’re more than ready,” Obama assured them.