Leid Stories

It's the first year of his second (lame-duck) term and President Barack Obama has a steep hill to climb -- convincing a wary nation he'll pull it through. A patchy four years didn't deliver the decisive (and numerous) victories he'd hoped for; vengeful Republicans, a do-nothing Congress and misplaced political confidence took care of that. This time around, even his core constituencies are grumbling about a low rate of return on their support. In short, Obama's got to bring the magic back; he's got to make The Big Sell. His State of the Union address tonight is key. Leid Stories and listeners predict his pitch points -- and danger zones he will astutely avoid.

It will come as no surprise that President Obama will focus on the economy in his State of the Union address tomorrow -- and, specifically, his second-term initiatives to save "the middle class." What Obama calls the "middle class," though, warrants examination. Why? Because he's not talking about two sizable constituencies that put him in the White House -- African Americans and Latinos -- but are suffering more than all other ethnic groups. It's a disturbing pattern, and Leid Stories calls Obama on it.

His Audacity of Hope might have been a bestseller, but what has yet again surfaced in the confirmation hearing of John Brennan, his nominee for CIA director, is the audacity of the president. As with the Benghazi hearings, it is clear that President Obama and those he entrusts with the nation's security are equally contemptuous of accountability and transparency. The single most glaring thing about the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Brennan is that none of Brennan's questioners seemed to know much about the CIA's operations, including the drone program -- a repeat of the Benghazi debacle. Leid Stories shows why there needs to be a hearing about the president's lack of accountability to Congress.

Millions of Americans seem to have disappeared. Gone without a trace, without notice. Surely such a thing would merit media coverage. Surely our commander in chief would make an effort to find them. Well, no. And no. Leid Stories explains why the legacy-building, second-term president maintains his political distance with the teeming masses, selling a narrative his America wants to hear, and why the so-called "liberal" media have taken to their old narrative-without-context ways. Quick! Dust off your copies of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man!

On June 12, 1963, four prominent activists -- Alan Morrison, New York editor of Ebony magazine; Wyatt T. Walker, chief of staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and executive assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Malcolm X, minister of the Nation of Islam's Mosque No.7 in Harlem – met in New York for a frank discussion about the civil-rights movement with Richard Heffner, host of "The Open Mind" (PBS). That very day, Medgar Evers, leader of a movement to desegregate Mississippi, was assassinated in Jackson.

Fifty years later, Leid Stories asks: Are we truly committed to the struggle for equality in America? Are we taking care of unfinished business?

On June 12, 1963, the very day that civil-rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Miss., four New York-based activists, all of them prominent in the struggle for equality, were asked in a wide-ranging discussion with Richard Heffner, host of "The Open Mind" (PBS), to assess the politics of race in America at the time. The four were: Alan Morrison, New York editor of Ebony magazine; Wyatt T. Walker, chief of staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and executive assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Malcolm X, minister of the Nation of Islam's Mosque No.7 in Harlem.

Leid Stories revisits the historic roundtable, which, in this second installment, focuses on the strategies and schisms in the political thinking of civil-rights movements at the height of this turbulent period.

On June 12, 1963, the very day that civil-rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Miss., four New York-based activists, all of them prominent in the struggle for equality, were asked in a wide-ranging discussion with Richard Heffner, host of "The Open Mind" (PBS), to assess the politics of race in America at the time. The four were: Alan Morrison, New York editor of Ebony magazine; Wyatt T. Walker, chief of staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and executive assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Malcolm X, minister of the Nation of Islam's Mosque No.7 in Harlem.

Leid Stories revisits the historic roundtable, drawing startling comparisons between the response of the Kennedy administration to the critical issues cited by the leaders then and that of the Obama administration today. In 50 years, how far along is America on the road to racial equality and justice?

Her "exclusive exit interview" with CNN yesterday was an innocuous gabfest. But Hillary Clinton gave her "official" accounting of her four years in office to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, detailing her triumphs in securing U.S. interests globally with her self-branded "smart" diplomacy, and directing its "pivot" to East Asia and Africa. Her speech as a backdrop, Leid Stories recalls some of Hillary's greatest hits.

Watching the congressional hearing on gun control yesterday, one would come to a logical conclusion: This is white America taking care of its business; the rest of us will just have to look on. Truth be told, the racial dynamic was a repeat of Vice President Joe Biden's gun-control advisory project and, later, the nationally covered ceremony at which President Obama signed a 23-point gun-control executive order. Leid Stories explains why the president -- and black elected officials -- aren't discussing, let alone attempting to solve, the crisis of gun violence in black communities all across America.