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Back in Chicago, Obama laments lack of "a father who was around"
reuters.com ^ | February 15, 2013 | Steve Holland

Posted on 02/15/2013 8:13:25 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

President Barack Obama acknowledged on Friday that he wished his father had been a bigger part of his life as he argued that stronger families are just as important as gun control in reducing crime and violence in poverty-stricken neighborhoods.

Obama returned to his old home neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago with a different take on his gun control message - that it will require an improved home environment for children to reduce the possibility that they will one day resort to violence.

To do that, he said, will require better economic conditions for low- and middle-class Americans, one reason he wants to raise the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, a proposal he offered in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, was raised largely by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii. His father, Barack Obama Sr., divorced Obama's mother when the president was two years old, and he was the central figure in Obama's memoir, "Dreams from My Father."

Pointing to a group of at-risk teenage boys with whom he had met privately before delivering a speech, Obama said he had not been much different than them.

"Don't get me wrong," he said in the address to high school students at Hyde Park Academy. "As the son of a single mom, who gave everything she had to raise me with the help of my grandparents, I turned out okay."

"But at the same time, I wish I'd have had a father who was around and involved," he told the mainly black audience.

Obama worked as a community organizer in the South Side of Chicago but had a more privileged background than many of the children he addressed on Friday.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: banglist; blackfamily; blackmales; chicago; fatherhood; illinois; obamafather; obamaspeech; urban
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1 posted on 02/15/2013 8:13:32 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

If the govt is big enough no one needs a father.


2 posted on 02/15/2013 8:16:41 PM PST by lonestar67 (I remember when unemployment was 4.7 percent)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
To do that, he said, will require better economic conditions for low- and middle-class Americans, one reason he wants to raise the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, a proposal he offered in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

As is usual, the real effects will be quite different. If the minimum wage gets raised, more young people will be laid off, and some will turn to gangs when they would have been at work.

3 posted on 02/15/2013 8:18:03 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Tailgunner Joe

“I turned out okay”

LIAR! LIAR! PANTS ON FIRE!;)


4 posted on 02/15/2013 8:18:11 PM PST by Frank_2001
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To: Tailgunner Joe

I wonder if his daughters like separate vacations.


5 posted on 02/15/2013 8:18:48 PM PST by donna (Pray for revival.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Tailgunner Joe. How much worse could it get? G’night all.

Jesse Jackson Jr. charged with spending $750G of campaign funds on personal items
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2989054/posts


6 posted on 02/15/2013 8:19:24 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

The whole country should regret it, too.


7 posted on 02/15/2013 8:21:01 PM PST by Catmom
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To: Tailgunner Joe

So sad, only those “typical white women” and their family, feeding you, clothing you, sending you to school...
Get over your sperm doner already, his “dreams” aren’t worth sh*t.


8 posted on 02/15/2013 8:46:16 PM PST by Ouchthatonehurt ("When you're going through hell, keep going." - Sir Winston Churchill)
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Tailgunner Joe

<<”Don’t get me wrong...(he hastens to add) ...I turned out okay.”>>


10 posted on 02/15/2013 8:51:29 PM PST by cyn (Benghazi...the travesty continues.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

11 posted on 02/15/2013 8:54:54 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

His father wanted him aborted.


12 posted on 02/15/2013 8:55:54 PM PST by bunkerhill7 ("The Second Amendment has no limits on firepower"-NY State Senator Marchione.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Didn’t your mommy and grandpa tell you that your father was the Father of All Mankind Uncle Joe?!


13 posted on 02/15/2013 8:57:10 PM PST by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
If Barry had a father in his life - perhaps he wouldn't have grown up to be queer.
14 posted on 02/15/2013 8:58:48 PM PST by USMA '71 ((Re-elect no one!))
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Was Hussein O. speaking to the same Comminity that HE was paid to organize years ago?


15 posted on 02/15/2013 9:07:39 PM PST by Graewoulf ((Traitor John Roberts' Commune Obama"care" violates Anti-Trust Law s, AND the U.S. Constitution.))
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To: BenLurkin
President Obama may very well be Frank Marshall Davis's son. There's definitely a resemblance, and a DNA test would prove it. Even if he knows about it, he's not likely to release the information.

Frankly, it doesn't really matter to me who his biological father was. His mom wouldn't be the first woman in history to sleep around, and it's ridiculous to blame children for the actions of their mother (or father for that matter).

What saddens me about President Obama? His ideology helps create more single mothers by subsidizing single motherhood and immorality. It's fact. The children of single mothers are significantly more likely to be dysfunctional themselves.

16 posted on 02/15/2013 9:20:05 PM PST by CitizenUSA (Why celebrate evil? Evil is easy. Good is the goal worth striving for.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

His Tranny Nanny took good care of him.


17 posted on 02/15/2013 9:23:25 PM PST by rfp1234 (Arguing with a liberal is like playing chess with a pigeon.)
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To: Vince Ferrer

Yeah, make it even more expensive for employers to hire unskilled black kids. That oughta help.


18 posted on 02/15/2013 9:26:12 PM PST by Argus
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To: donna

donna: “I wonder if his daughters like separate vacations.”

Political ideologies are one thing, but President Obama, Michelle, and the daughters are people. It saddens me when anyone doesn’t live up to their potential, and I’m not talking about riches or power. Just think how Obama would have turned out if he’d had two loving, committed, moral parents? What if he’d had a proper Christian upbringing rather than all the social justice, racial grievance, and black liberation crap? Our president has real problems. So does his wife. I despise his ideology but I don’t hate the man. I pity him.


19 posted on 02/15/2013 9:36:20 PM PST by CitizenUSA (Why celebrate evil? Evil is easy. Good is the goal worth striving for.)
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To: Argus
Argus: “Yeah, make it even more expensive for employers to hire unskilled black kids. That oughta help.”

Legalizing millions of low skill illegal aliens oughta help, too.

20 posted on 02/15/2013 9:38:16 PM PST by CitizenUSA (Why celebrate evil? Evil is easy. Good is the goal worth striving for.)
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