Leid Stories

Leid Stories - Capitol Offenses - 02/14/13

Treasury nominee Jack Lew gets grilled on a $900,000 Citigroup bailout bonus and an offshore investment account. Defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s confirmation gets staled by a Republican filibuster. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta fires damning parting shots at Congress. Plus, more detailed analysis of President Obama’s State of the Union address.

It’s a Capitol show on Leid Stories – a different kind of love on Valentine’s Day!

Leid Stories - Obama's SOTU: Same Difference - 02/13/13

Yes, it was a different President Barack Obama speaking to Congress and the nation last night. And no, it wasn't. For, his State of the Union address was both a reiterated wish list of policy "reforms" he'd like attached to his name before he leaves office and a velvet-smooth admission that wily old-guard Republicans, fractured as they are, have beaten him at his own game. Still, Obama's SOTU, crafted in big-picture (not small details) terms, went off as the Hollywood production these things have come to be. Leid Stories discusses the pox-on-both-our-houses antidote, offered by Rand Paul (R-KY), whose  stolid Tea Partyesque newspeak was actually refreshing.

Leid Stories - State of the Union: Obama's Big Sell - 02/12/13

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.

Leid Stories - Obama's Post-Racial Economy - 02/11/13

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.

Leid Stories - Hearing Reveals Obama's Audacity - 02/08/13

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.

Leid Stories - Invisible All Over Again - 02/07/13

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!

Leid Stories - Racism In America: Unfinished Business - 02/06/13

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?

Leid Stories - Racism In America: The Struggles Within - 02/05/13

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.

Leid Stories - Racism In America: The Remarkable Sameness of Being - 02/04/13

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?

Leid Stories - 02/01/13

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.