Tavis Smiley and Cornel West on the 2012 Election and Obama's Progressivism

Here's a discussion with Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West on Obama's record as a progressive, poverty, and other issues related to the latest presidential election.  They also discuss their latest book: "The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto."  This is courtesy of Democracy Now!.

Part 1: On the election.

 

Part 2: On Obama and Poverty.

Fareed Zakaria: Poverty in America Compared to Other Countries

In this video clip, Fareed Zakaria uses Mitt Romney's comment on the poor to discuss poverty in the U.S. and how it compares to other industrialized countries.  At around 2:14 he draws attention to child poverty in particular and its lasting social and economic effects.  While he does not directly discuss crime, he does highlight a number of consequences of child poverty that are commonly correlated with one-on-one violent crime (e.g., high school drop out rates).  He concludes on a positive note however, in that he argues that [child] poverty in the U.S. is something we can address, much as the U.K. did during Tony Blair's tenure as Prime Minister.

Courtesy of Crooks & Liars: