Tavis Smiley Breaks His Silence About Obama

 

 

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Talk show host Tavis Smiley spoke publicly about President Obama this week on the Today Show, as he promoted his new book about how to overcome failure.  The host, Ann Curry, gave Smiley an opportunity to discuss his concerns about the Obama Administration, and this is what he had to say:

CURRY: Well as president then, since you bring it up, what do you think his greatest failure has been so far?

SMILEY: Well I think he's got a, he's got a full plate. But I think he's gotta be held accountable for a number of different standards. I think he's wrong on these wars. I think he's given too much time, too much attention to the rich and the lucky, not enough attention to the poor. Not enough focus on jobs. Again, there's a lot on his plate and I'm empathetic toward that. But ultimately are you gonna side with the weak or are you gonna side with the strong? And we gotta focus more attention on the weak in this country and less on the strong.

CURRY: You think this budget battle, this, this tangle-

SMILEY: I think-

CURRY: -is an opportunity for the President?

SMILEY: Yeah I think that budgets are moral documents. Budgets are moral documents. You can say what you say, but you are what you are. And when you put your budget on the table we know what you believe in and there's some questions, some real questions to be asked. The Republican budget is no better, but budgets are moral documents. And it's this budget here, says a whole lot about what our values and priorities are and quite frankly I don't like any of them.

CURRY: One of the priorities needs to be about finding people jobs.

SMILEY: Absolutely. That's, that's, that is the message.

CURRY: So, so, so what is it that you think needs to be done? What's your message to President Obama-

SMILEY: I think, I think-

CURRY: -and the Congress this morning?

SMILEY: I think the way to cut deficits is to provide jobs. That's the simple answer. If you want to reduce the deficit, get Americans back to work. That's true for Republicans and Democrats. Jobs, jobs, jobs. This country has to fail up as well.

CURRY: Alright. A man who never lacks for an opinion. Thank you so much. Tavis Smiley, the book is called Fail Up.

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