In a call Wednesday with top donors, Mitt Romney attempted to explain why he lost his bid for the White House. Instead of reflecting on the missteps of his campaign, the lack of specifics of his numerous “5 point plans,” and his inability to connect with voters in an authentic way, Romney pinned his loss on President Obama’s “gifts” to key constituencies, namely minorities, young voters and women.

Romney reportedly told his donors:

“The Obama campaign was following the old playbook of giving a lot of stuff to groups that they hoped they would get to vote for them… specifically the African American community, the Hispanic community and young people.” He summed it up, “In each case they were very generous in what they gave to those groups.”

What “gifts” was Romney speaking of? He name-checked Obamacare and the President’s immigration executive order, which allowed undocumented immigrants who came here as minors to stay in the country.

Speaking of black voters, Romney explained:

“With regards to African American voters, ‘Obamacare’ was a huge plus – and was highly motivational.”

“You can imagine for somebody making 25, or 30, or $35,000 a year, being told you’re now going to get free healthcare, particularly if you don’t have it, getting free healthcare worth, what, $10,000 a family, in perpetuity, I mean this is huge,” he said.

Despite Romney’s claims, President Obama didn’t win because he gave blacks, Latinos, and young people “gifts” (the black unemployment rate bears this out). He won because Romney ran a shoddy campaign that was rife with gaffes, tone-deaf comments, and was unable to speak to people’s issues.

What Romney calls “gifts,” other politicians call policies—and people want politicians who speak to their concerns.

Although many have tried to paint Obamacare as a “handout” to minorities, every uninsured person—white, black, or otherwise—benefits. This “gift” wasn’t just to assuage black folks, it was to insure that millions of Americans will no longer have to go bankrupt due to medical bills. That’s a “gift” that works for all of us.

Romney’s assertion is extremely simplistic at best, and downright myopic at worst. It has made many take another look at his 47% “gaffe”.

Republican strategist, David Frum breaks it down:

“Mitt Romney was very wrong to see 2012 as a referendum on “stuff.” It was a referendum on the question, which candidate would do a better job promoting prosperity and creating jobs. That was the referendum that Romney and the Republican party lost. We lost both because voters did not believe in the job-creating magic of upper-income tax cuts – and because voters were unpersuaded that the GOP even cared that much about job creation, as opposed to wealth preservation.”

While many Republicans are looking to blame anyone but themselves for last Tuesday’s loss, Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour says they need realize why they lost.

“We need to have a brutal, brutally honest assessment of everything we did,” Barbour said. “We need to take everything apart … and determine what we did that worked and what we did that didn’t work.”

Unfortunately for Romney, he still seems to be in the denial stage. It remains to be seen if Republicans as a whole will reflect on the loss and chart a better course for the future.

The post Dear Mitt Romney: You Lost Because You Ran A Lousy Campaign, Get Over It appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

It’s no secret, Beyonce is a big fan of the Obamas. Over the past four years, Bey and her husband Jay-Z have not only been loud supporters of the President, but they’ve also been one of his top donors.

Earlier this year, the R&B diva showed her love for Mrs. Obama with an open letter about the First Lady’s influence and the example she has set for women, particularly mothers. And this time, on the eve of yet another important election, Bey penned another note, this time to the President.

The singer also backed up her words and posted a photo of herself voting for the President early this morning. While many commended Beyonce for rocking the polls, other chided her for posting the picture online (and in some states it may even be illegal, so be careful).

Whether or not you agree with Beyonce’s choice, today is the day Americans can exercise their right to vote. So get informed about your local issues and head to the polls.

The post Beyonce Writes Open Letter to President Obama appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

Former Single Ladies star, Stacey Dash has been very vocal about her support for Republican presidential nominee. When the actress first informed her tweeps that she’d be voting for Romney in November, many of her followers immediately objected. A large contingent of black folks took Dash to task for supporting the GOP candidate instead of President Obama, but Dash was committed.

Dash recently tweeted a photo of herself with vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan. The tagline? “Fighting the good fight. Godspeed.”

Fighting the good fight. Godspeed. @reppaulryan @mittromney #Romney/Ryan20 twitter.com/REALStaceyDash…

— Stacey Dash (@REALStaceyDash) October 29, 2012

The actress took to her blog to explain further.

I am an American citizen, who exercised her first Amendment right.

I am self realized and believe that hard work and faith will allow me to achieve my American dream.

I believe that Governor Mitt Romney believes in the American people. That we can be self evident, that we are capable of achieving the American dream. That there is enough for everyone. I believe that because he has proven his ability to lead,and his ability to be excellent as a CEO and as the Governor of Massachusetts. Governor Romney is the best choice to be our next President. He has achieved the American dream, he knows how to lead us the American people to realize our potential. By creating 12 million jobs, giving equal work for equal pay,by giving incentives and cutting loopholes, by keeping us safe and strong as a country of Super Power.

Yes, it is true, he is rich. So what better person to lead us to economic prosperity than someone who has attained it.

I believe that his faith and strong moral character WILL serve him very well as he Leads us to being the great UNITED STATES OF AMERICA we can be.

While many, like Vivica Fox, criticized Dash for her political views, Whoopi Goldberg spoke up in her defense.

Goldberg told The View audience: “In America, where we all live we have the right to say, ‘Listen, I have a different opinion’ — without having some bonehead sitting in their house talking about, ‘You should be thinking like I think.’ No! That’s not America.”

We agree.

The post Stacey Dash Says She’s ‘Fighting the Good Fight’ with Paul Ryan appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

If you lived in another country and have been following the 2012 Presidential Race, you might think America has an extremely low poverty rate. Between the talk about increasing our military spending, taxing the wealthy, small business creation and growing the middle-class, poor Americans have been left out of the conversation.

Wednesday, vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan gave his first policy speech since joining the Romney ticket. His topic? How to win the “war on poverty.”

While many have taken Ryan to task for his budget proposals that would drastically cut funding for programs poor Americans rely on to stay afloat, Ryan assured the audience that America can win the war.

According to Ryan, dismantling the social safety net and thrusting the responsibly of caring for the poor is better left to private groups, religious organizations, and charities.

He told the Cleveland, Ohio crowd: 

The welfare reform mindset hasn’t been applied with equal vigor across the spectrum of our anti-poverty programs.

In most of these programs, especially in recent years, we’re still trying to measure compassion by how much government spends not by how many people we help escape from poverty.

Just last year, total federal and state spending on means-tested programs came in at more than $1 trillion. How much is that in practical terms? For that amount of money, you could give every poor American a check for $22,000.

Instead, we spend all that money attempting to fight poverty through government programs, and what do we have to show for it?

Today, 46 million people are living in poverty. That’s 1 in 6 Americans. It’s the highest poverty rate in a generation. During the last 4 years, the number of people living in poverty and food stamps has gone up by 15 million. Medicaid is reaching a breaking point. 1 in 4 American students fails to obtain a high school diploma. In our major cities, half of our kids don’t graduate – half.

In this war on poverty, poverty is winning. We deserve better. We deserve a clear choice for a brighter future.

He continued:

Where government is entrusted with providing a safety net, Mitt Romney and I have our own vision for how to keep it strong. It’s a vision that leaves the failures of the past in the past and proposes instead to build on those reforms that have worked.

For starters, a Romney-Ryan administration will clearly restore those parts of the welfare reform law that have been undone or weakened. We will do this for the sake of millions of Americans who deserve to lead lives of dignity and freedom. 

We’ll also apply other lessons from welfare reform’s success. For example, many of the solutions that worked in the 1990s came from states such as my home state of Wisconsin and leaders such as former Governor Tommy Thompson. President Clinton and the Congress recognized that it would be a good idea to give states more power to tailor welfare to the unique needs of their citizens.

Mitt Romney and I want to apply this idea to other anti-poverty programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps. The federal government would continue to provide the resources, but we would remove endless federal mandates and restrictions that hamper state efforts to make these programs more effective.

According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy, Ryan’s proposed budget would gut most social programs.

They write:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan would get at least 62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means. This stands a core principle of President Obama’s fiscal commission on its head and violates basic principles of fairness.

Despite Ryan asserting that the “American Dream” has taken a hit in the past four years, many economists have roundly called this dream a myth because the ability to move between social classes isn’t as probable as most Americans think.

Howard Steven Friedman, Columbia University economist, recently noted that the “statistics are very depressing for those who subscribe to the notion that America is a meritocracy and a ‘land of opportunity.’”

Friedman cites a study on social mobility access, which researched the probability of economic mobility in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the U.K., and the U.S.

He writes:

One interesting study examined the probability that a son will remain in his father’s income quintile, where a quintile represents one-fifth of the population ranked from lowest to highest income. In that study of six countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States), the data demonstrate that 42 percent of the American sons of fathers born in the poorest quintile landed in the poorest quintile themselves. This rate of the persistence of poverty was far higher than the 30 percent found in the United Kingdom and well above the 25 percent to 28 percent range found in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway.

Despite the overwhelming majority of Americans believing in the “rags to riches” notion of the American dream, for many of us this just isn’t a reality.

So how do people really overcome poverty

One of the keys to breaking the cycle of generational poverty is education.

Friedman writes:

Of the adults who grew up in low-income families but earned college degrees, only 16 percent stayed in the lowest income quintile. Of the adults who started in the lowest income quintile and failed to earn a college degree, 46 percent stayed there. End inequality in education, and we strike a blow for social mobility — although persistent disparities in income by race and gender still need to be addressed.

Despite telling Ohioans “the quality of our education system are among the many issues this year where the neediest of Americans have a direct stake,” Ryan’s proposed budgets would severely cut funding to several school districts around the country, especially those that rely heavily on federal funds for programs targeting low-income students. Conversely, districts that don’t use as many federal funds (usually those in wealthier areas), wouldn’t be adversely affected.

Poverty is a serious issue that, to date, has been glossed over in this year’s political conversations. While no one wants a society where half (or according to Mitt Romney 47%) of Americans are dependent on the government, shredding the social safety net and leaving vulnerable citizens to fend for themselves is equally unthinkable.

*Photo via the New York Times

The post The Least of These: Are Politicians REALLY Concerned About the Poor? appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

Today, after a slew of underwhelming hype, Trump released a “bombshell” announcement meant to “expose” Pres. Obama. While many batted around theories of what Trump could possibly release, the final product was completely anti-climatic.

The gist of Trump’s “announcement”? He’s still on his birther grind and now wants President Obama to produce his college and passport applications, presumably because it will tell us that Barack Obama isn’t American, in exchange for a $5 million donation to a charity of the President’s choosing.

Whatever.

While Trump continues to try to bolster his media profile and boost ratings for the upcoming season of The Apprentice with batshit crazy allegations, I just wish he’d go away.

So here are 3 things we should be talking about instead of Donald Trump’s latest stunt.

# 1 How the right plans to overturn Roe v. Wade

Salon.com recently published an in-depth article on how our right to choose will deteriorate if Mitt Romney wins the presidency. If Romney is elected, he will presumably be able to appoint one or more Supreme Court justices that may solidify a Conservative leaning court and overturn Roe.

Slate reports: “It will be slow, and it will be indirect — to avoid a backlash — but the inexorable goal is to overturn it and ban abortion wherever possible. With an eye toward the court’s oldest member, women’s rights pioneer Ruth Bader Ginsburg, antiabortion activists would be counting on a President Romney to appoint one or more justices who would upset the fragile 5-4 balance that currently maintains the federal right to an abortion. In the meantime, they’ve been working hard to lay the groundwork to get a case before the Court that would allow justices to revisit, and possibly overturn, Roe.”

Scary, stuff.

#2 Juanita Rosenior releases “The Portfolio” which celebrates black lifestyle & entertainment brands in the UK

Our brothers and sisters across the Pond are doing big things, and to celebrate it Juanita Rosenior decided to release a new digital publication aimed and spreading the word about black entrepreneurs and brands in the UK. This week, Rosenoir released the inaugural issue of The Portfolio, which shares tips on how to grow your business as well as highlights many like Isis Empire Magazine (geared toward naturalistas) and Ivy Monro, a digital mag for UK women.

Read the first issue of The Portfolio online.

# 3 Bin Laden Film ‘Seal Team Six’ Recut To Give President Obama Starring Role

Shadow & Act is reporting that a The Weinstein Company-backed film about the Bin Laden raid will feature the President in a “prominent” role.  The film was apparently recut to give it a “stronger sense of realism,” but New York Times film critics say the changes were meant to strengthen “Mr. Obama’s role and provide a window into decision-making in the White House.”

While many Republicans are crying foul (Harvey Weinstein is a staunch Obama backer), the film will debut just days before the election on November 4, and on Netflix on November 5.

Will it affect the election?

I guess we’ll have to see.

What are you talking about today INSTEAD of Donald Trump? Drop us a note!

The post 3 Things We Should Be Talking About Instead of Donald Trump appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

In a recent interview with theGrio to discuss her TV shows—Prank My Mom and Mr. Box Office–Vivica Fox was asked about fellow actress Stacey Dash’s recent endorsement of Mitt Romney.

During the chat, the Why Do Fools Fall In Love star dropped some not-so-subtle shade on her fellow thespian when she said that Stacey Dash’s political views were relayed without “class.”

Fox explained:

“I don’t know why she [Stacey Dash] had to do a photo shoot in a Baywatch red swimsuit with the boobs and the whole flag behind her,” Fox said. “And she doesn’t have a job or something to promote right now. I just didn’t get it. She’s entitled to her own opinion but it was just surprising that first of all she was a Republican, and that she did it the way that she did. Most politicians when you support them, you try to support them with class, you don’t need to do a swimsuit shoot.”

Ouch.

Like many have said before, Dash is entitled to her own opinion and shouldn’t have been bashed because she supports Mitt Romney over President Obama.

And while political rhetoric can get quite testy, our opinions on who we support and why shouldn’t have to conform to a particular line of thinking simply because of our race or gender.

The post #ShotsFired: Vivica Fox Blasts Stacey Dash for Romney Endorsement, Says She Didn’t Do It With ‘Class’ appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

With just two weeks left to the presidential election, a Seattle-based conservative group is trying to erode President Obama’s strong support among black voters by running a 30-second ad criticizing the President for not paying advocating specifically for African-Americans.

The ad, paid for by Pivot Point, a political action committee launched this year, are running on BET in Seattle and the extremely important swing state of Ohio.

David Weigel of Slate spoke with Dave Shemwell, a scientist who runs the PAC part time.

Shemwell explained the ad’s backstory:

“I’ve been working with a fellow named Wayne Perryman, a local black evangelical pastor in Washington state who’s been active in gang outreach and various religious outreach programs,” said Shemwell. (The PAC chairman is white.) “Since he’s also a Romney supporter, I said I want to reach out into communities that are not Republican. I started talking about jobs, and all the things that people have in common, and he said: You’re not going to reach anyone that way.”

The 30-second spot criticizes President Obama for “cutting aid to black colleges,” black businesses, and supporting marriage equality, calling the President’s support for gay marriage rights “a slap in the face.”

Shemwell says he bought the ad for a rock-bottom price and could have run a national ad on BET for just $2000, but chose to focus on Ohio because “50,000 votes in that state could be a big deal this year.”

This isn’t the first time Conservative groups have reached out to black voters to try to get them to “vote their values.” Earlier this month a religious group called God Said began imploring black voters to vote their “Biblical Values” and presumably choose Mitt Romney.

While the President has not been very outspoken on policies that would specifically target black folks (possibly because many of our issues are the same as other Americans), it is foolish to believe the Romney administration would take a stronger stand on our issues.

The post Just In Time for the Election: Conservatives Run Anti-Obama Ads on BET appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

If you had any doubts that gay marriage is still a hot button issue in the African American community, you can read yesterday’s article about a New York couple that recently tied the knot in Kentucky. A video of their beautiful wedding ceremony went viral sparking heated debates on both sides of the issue. Now, a new non-profit organization called God Said plans to capitalize on this oft divisive issue and try to use it to help Mitt Romney win the presidency.

According to their website, God Said is a group of black spiritual leaders who are angry with President Obama’s stance on gay marriage. While the President indicated that he supports the right of gay and lesbian individuals to get married, he hasn’t suggested any federal policies that would allow them to do so. Despite this, the group God Said is launching an ad campaign to encourage African Americans to “vote their Biblical values” instead of supporting President Obama in November.

The God Said website gives more details:

OUR GOAL: To switch 25% of African American voters from voting their political party to voting their Biblical values.

OUR VISION: To impact the social and cultural climate; to bring about a notable, non-partisan support of natural marriage and natural family life in the African American community and society as a whole.

We steadfastly stand and uphold in Biblical truth that marriage was instituted by God and defined by Him as the holy union of a man and a woman.

Apostle Claver Kamau-Imani, founder of God Said, further explained his group’s mission in a statement:

“The black community is among the most religious in America and we are offended that President Obama has announced his support of same-sex marriage, that the NAACP has blindly supported the secular views of the Democratic Party, and that their national platform plainly supports same-sex marriage. I am confident that this message will be well received and acted upon on Election Day.”

Back in August, Gov. Romney polled at zero percent among black voters, so God Said has quite a bit of ground to make up if they plan on swaying 25 percent of African Americans to vote for Gov. Romney in November.

With the race tightening substantially over the past week, black voters in swing states like Virginia, Florida, and Ohio may make all of the difference in the race, but will God Said’s new ad campaign influence their vote?

The post Group of Black Spiritual Leaders Plan Anti-Obama Ads Urging Blacks to ‘Vote Their Biblical Values’ – Will It Work? appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

With a month remaining in the presidential race, many voters are hoping the candidates get more specific about their policies and prescriptions for fixing our ailing economy.

In an effort to get each candidate to speak specifically to African-American voters, the NAACP along with National Newspaper Publishers Association, MSNBC, the Grio, and American Urban Radio Network invited each campaign to speak at a forum geared toward black voters but they each declined citing scheduling conflicts.

The New Pittsburg Courier reports:

NNPA President and CEO Bill Tompkins said that the forums like the one proposed by the Black groups would have given Obama the opportunity to outline his support for programs that hope to address issues plaguing the Black community.

“We need to hear that (Obama) is looking out for us, that he cares for us and that he wants us to participate in the great American Dream,” Tompkins explained.

Despite claiming they didn’t have enough time to meet with African-American media outlets, many found it ironic both candidate carved out time to court Latino voters last month.

The NNPA news service explains:

Romney carved out 35 minutes for the program and Obama shared a full hour. The candidates were grilled on topics concerning Latino voters such as immigration,  the drug war, and the controversial Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM).

Univision pressured the candidates to attend the forum held at the University of Miami after organizers of the presidential debate denied Univision’s request to add a fourth debate with a minority moderator.

As Hispanics become the biggest ethnic minority group in the country, African-American voters are finding their influence increasingly waning. But are politicians taking us for granted?

How can black voters leverage their power and get politicians to address the issues that matter to us?

Speak on it! 

The post President Obama & Mitt Romney Decline to Have ‘Black Issues’ Debate – Are They Taking Us For Granted? appeared first on Clutch Magazine.

America got a bit of good news today as the September jobs report was released. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), the economy added 114,000 jobs in last month, and a revision of the July and August numbers show 86,000 more jobs than previously thought, lowering the unemployment rate to 7.8 percent, the lowest since President Obama took office.

While this news seems to indicate the economy is still slowly recovering, almost as soon as the numbers were released Republican strategists took to social media to claim the BLS, comprised of economists who do not work for a particular administration, cooked the books to help President Obama’s reelection chances.

Jack Welch, former head of GE, tweeted:  “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change number.”

Fox News reporter Stuart Varney, remarked: “Oh how convenient…five weeks before the election…”

Mitt Romney issued a press release saying, “This is not what a real recovery looks like,” and claims the “real” unemployment rate is close to 11 percent.

The rhetoric by the GOP claiming the jobs numbers were fixed forced Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein to write an article debunking the conspiracy theories.

Klein writes:

Let’s take a deep breath. Jobs reports are about the economy, not about the election. Confusing the two leads to very bad analysis.

This is a good jobs report in a still-weak economy. The 114,000 jobs we added in September aren’t very impressive. The revisions to the last two months, which added 86,000 jobs to the total, were much more impressive. Those revisions also suggest that September’s jobs could get revised up — or, of course, down. So be careful about reading too much into that number. Still, these are, at best, good, not great, numbers.

The controversy, if it’s worth using that word, is over the unemployment rate, which dropped from 8.1 percent to 7.8 percent. That’s three-tenths of one percent. That’s what all the fuss is about.

Let’s get one thing out of the way: The data was not, as Jack Welch suggested in a now-infamous tweet, manipulated. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set up to ensure the White House has no ability to influence it. As labor economist Betsey Stevenson wrote, “anyone who thinks that political folks can manipulate the unemployment data are completely ignorant of how the BLS works and how the data are compiled.” Plus, if the White House somehow was manipulating the data, don’t you think they would have made the payroll number look a bit better than 114,000? No one would have batted an eye at 160,000.

Most independent economists argue these numbers show positive signs for the American economy, but I guess Republicans would rather see the economy take a hit than see good news under the Obama administration.

The post Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.8 Percent, Republicans Claim ‘Conspiracy’ appeared first on Clutch Magazine.