White House To Launch National Fatherhood Tour Next Week

usnews.com:

The Obama administration is taking its effort to promote responsible fatherhood, which it launched with a White House town hall event just before Father's Day, on the road, hosting a half-dozen town halls in the next few months in different parts of the country. The first event will happen in Chicago next Wednesday. It will feature a videotaped message from President Obama, a roundtable and networking session for local nonprofit groups, presentations by administration officials, and a panel of local dads, according to an adviser for the effort.

Read the whole story: usnews.com

Comments

[mmonarch]

Obama should do, what he is encouraging fathers to do....and that is stay home. Now he is out peddling the health care plan, state to state, like he is campaigning for office. How much is that costing the country? Stay home, Obama.

[ritenow]

How much is that costing the country?

Not as much if we don't get real health care reform.

[commentator101]

This is a great idea. But I do wish they would have put it on hold for 6 months or more. I think Obama IS over-exposed and it's hurthing him somewhat.

[MrsFonebone]

Nobody in the Whtie House seems to care about women's issues. What about all the single moms, the abandoned families, and children? And why does it have to be a "faith based and neighborhood" office supported by my tax dollars/ All the tax exempt churches out there could be doing this mission on their own.
Obama sure has a fatherhood fixation but if he thinks these little seminars or traveling road show or whatever it is is going to change anything, he's completely naive. The men who need this will not go near it, the others waste time and money. More PR for Obama.

[kesmarn]

When men walk away from families, it creates one of the most serious "women's issues" out there, as many women will testify. I'm glad to see that President Obama has a "fatherhood fixation." I really don't see much of a down side to encouraging people to be attentive, responsible parents.

[Two Cents]

. . . but whether men are present or not, women are disadvantaged (either dependency in marriage/partnerships or by being alone) by the lack of subsidized quality child care for young children, equal pay for equal work and the structure of job advancement modeled on the old assumption that a worker is a male head of household with a partner to raise his children and run his household. While I'm all for men and women being *good* parents (because, frankly, a man or woman who is physically or emotionally abusive or who has an addiction or who is envoloved in low/high organized crime who is (fill in the blank) is better absent, IMHO), I'd *MUCH* prefer to see, from a women's issues point of view, stronger child care legislation, better enforced fair labour laws, manditory paid paternal leave, federally mandated child health care and the like. That would go a long way in helping women and their children.

[Two Cents]

Single mothers should not be demonized--they work while raising children, not an easy task. And while I'm "with the program" regarding supporting heterosexual married couples with children, I'm not "with the program" in making an outcast of the majority of families that simply to reflect that old, if ever true, idea of what a family should be. (See _The Way We Never Were_.) One last note: why must the presence of a man necessarily validate a woman's right to respect and dignity? Really . . . let's come out of the cave and see the light (and I don't mean in a Platonic sort of way). T_C

[kesmarn]

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding your point, but I don't see how encouraging men to be responsible parents demonizes single mothers.

[Two Cents]

The discussion of encouraging men to be responsible fathers often brings with it the vilification of single mothers (see jmcdougle, or some such, post below) and I wanted to blast that particular criticism in a big way since it usually goes unchallenged.

[gisele422]

"Here you have a Democratic, progressive president who is making fatherhood and family a huge priority, which helps to put the culture wars to rest."

Great idea President Obama! One less issue left to divide and conquer the masses politically.

[YewNeekId]

The professional tourist fails to realize that he was hired to fo a job, not just ride around on the big plane mugging for the camera all of the time.

There are real issues to deal with. Healthcare public option is in jeopardy. The House's healthcare draft bill doesn't get implemented until after 2013, Citiban is planning on giving $1,000,000+ bonuses to over 700 of it's employess. Afghanistan is crumbling.

Any sense of leadership in the White House has been outsourced to Emmanuelle.

Obama seems to think he's an American Idol contestant and not an employee of the people. I have never seen a president more avrse to hard work than this guy. Bush was a failure, but he tried. Obama will fail for lack of effort.

[Gretel1or2]

Off Topic and FALSE. If you want to join Lou Dobbs on his birther's fantasty tv show, go do that.

[kesmarn]

Encouraging responsible fatherhood may not be as important as clearing brush with a chainsaw in Texas, but I think it still qualifies as leadership.

[cliffhammond]

Between Obama and Bill Cosby a lot of folks are going to start getting really uneasy about this..... social outreach.

[urweatherman]

Maybe he should invite Octomom to the white house for a beer!

[shockaslim]

She needs to keep as many brain cells as she can.

[SonofLiberty1]

I'm not uneasy about it at all...
It needs to be said.

[baddadd49]

what! is the most confusing day in the inner city, Fathers day

[mypov123]

How many hours did it take you to come up with such a lame joke??

[baddadd49]

is that my daddy? is that my daddy? is that my daddy?

[cliffhammond]

The original used the NBA.

[roshni]

There is no better role model than our president for a fatherhood initiative. He has much to offer parents.

[Ihatecats]

http://www.threadbombing.com/data/media/54/facepalm2.jpg

[texasrodeoqueen]

Obama is a great daddy and I feel like he is a good daddy for America He is just so cool!
And, $50 the "right to lifer" bunch have a lot of unpaid child support - just intuition

[MyDogIsADemocrat]

Wow, someone has daddy issues.

[TheFriendlyAtheist]

I may have some issues with the President on how he's running the country, but no one can deny that Barak Obama is one great Dad.

[connski]

first National Brotherhood week. Now National Fatherhood week.

(apologies to Tom Lerher)

[peta4ever]

What about MOTHERS?????????????? Give me a break OBAMA. Enough with the whole fathers thing. Yes we get it, you want to be known as a good father. Mothers are far more important to a child's development, and of course two healthy, commited loving parents!!! MOTHERS are most important

[fcsakes]

Ahem, ever hear of Mother's Day?

Both parents are equally important, hopefully fulfilling their very important different roles in the lives of their children.

[roshni]

Obama is qualified to speak about fatherhood because he is a father.

[cliffhammond]

"Two Mothers" are even better.

[SonofLiberty1]

BS (apologies if you are being sarcastic) If you aren't go take a cold shower:)

[shockaslim]

You are the most ridiculous person I have ever encountered in my life.

[michaleenflynn]

Does this mean the left will start embracing the nuclear family, and stop glorifying single motherhood?

This I gotta see!

[j mcdouglas]

With the kinds of available men in the Southern states, many women are better off raising their kids alone.

Half the white ones don't even think Obama was born in this country, so what does that say about their mental state? They definitely shouldn't be raising kids with guns in the house, that's for sure.

[mypov123]

LOL

[roshni]

absolutely.

[cliffhammond]

I guess the word hasn't got around the central woods of Florida that Hawaii is a state now.

[urweatherman]

Hopefully, you were never a father....and if you are, I question the judgement of the mother....

[wizegeye]

You have an extremely bigoted view of those who live in the south. You also have no idea what you're talking about. I lived in Alabama and Tennessee for several years and I have never owned a gun. Most of the people with whom I socialized were well-educated, common sense people just like anywhere else in the US. You also seem to have a hatred for white. Are you a racist?

[fcsakes]

No.

But I'm confused - aren't all you righties opposed to abortion? or were you just dying to use the phrase, "...glorifying single motherhood...?"

[roshni]

good questions. The righties are choking on their own bile while they cheat on their wives, abandon their children and keep talking about religion. Case in point - Rudy Ghouliani.

[michaleenflynn]

fcsakes - obviously neither linear or critical thinking are your fortes.

Sokay. Carry on.

[roshni]

The right should talk with its bible thumping representatives like Sanford who skip out to visit mistresses on Father's Day.

[cliffhammond]

You're kidding right? Divorce rates are far higher in Red States, along with child abuse, domestic violence, etc. [cf. The Authoritarians, by research social-psychologist Bob Altemeyer]

[Two Cents]

Single mothers should not be demonized--they work while raising children, not an easy task. And while I'm "with the program" regarding supporting heterosexual married couples with children, I'm not "with the program" in making an outcast of the majority of families that simply to reflect that old, if ever true, idea of what a family should be. (See _The Way We Never Were_.) One last note: why must the presence of a man necessarily validate a woman's right to respect and dignity? Really . . . let's come out of the cave and see the light (and I don't mean in a Platonic sort of way). T_C

[michaleenflynn]

Make up your mind - either fathers are important and children are better off with them, or not.

[CR46]

Some peole on this blog are critizing our president, but he does come accoss as a man that is a loving and caring father. That is a great quality in any man...dem..rep...black...white.....

[CR46]

Sorry for the spelling errors, my dyslexia kicks in when tired and I should learn to type slowly at night...:)

[Weirdwriter]

What you wrote was well said. Never mind the typos, we all make 'em. ;>)

[robXdion]

No one said he wasn't. You can acknowledge all of that and parse other elements of his actions.

[roshni]

Of course he is. One of the many reasons I trust him.