Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
RECENT POSTS
- Obama Expects Unemployment Figures to “Tick Up for Several Months,” Despite Economy Stabilizing
- President Obama Joins With McCain to Eliminate Raptor Fighter Jets
- President Obama Tries to Get the Momentum Back on Health Care Reform
- Labor Leaders Push Obama for Second Stimulus Package
- President Obama to Jewish Leaders: Every Time I’m on Al Jazeera They Show Me at the Western Wall with a Yarmulke On
- If a Teleprompter Falls in the White House Does It Make a Sound?
- Today’s Qs for O’s WH – 7/13/2009
- Obama on his US Surgeon Nominee, She Has Seen What’s “Broken” About Health Care
- President Obama Puts Congress 'On Notice' Regarding Health Care Reform: 'We Are Going to Get This Done'
- Surgeon General Nominee Was World News Tonight’s Person of the Week in 1995
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Excuse Me, Ma'am, That's GOVERNOR Round Mound of Rebound
October 28, 2008 10:34 AM
Former Philadelphia 76er Charles Barkley last night told CNN's Campbell Brown that he plans a gubernatorial run in 2014.
Maybe by then voters in that state will accept his support for same sex marriage.
Barkley: Alabama needs a lot of help. You know Campbell, the reason I have become really pro-active -- and to be honest with you I never really got involved with politics until John Kerry and John Edwards last time. And the reason I'm supporting the Democratic Party [is] no more than I like Barack. I think he is a friend of mine. I think he is a wonderful, wonderful person. The reason I voted for John Kerry last time and have been more out there this time, I look at the -- it's really about rich people versus poor people and I think it is a travesty what they have done to poor people in this country. And lets be realistic, it doesn't, George Bush -- I don't care. It's not going to have any effect realistically on my life who the president is. The reason I am supporting the Democratic Party, I think it is a bona fide tragedy what has happened to poor people in this country and the gap between the rich and the poor is wider than it has ever been. You got this bailout situation, I just think it's a travesty.
Brown: So are you going to run for governor?
Barkley: I plan on it in 2014.
Brown: You are serious.
Barkley: I am, I can't screw up Alabama.
Brown: There is no place to go but up in your view?
Barkley: We are number 48 in everything and Arkansas and Mississippi aren't going anywhere.
Brown: And the top priority for you would be education?
Barkley: All the way education, the public school system in this country is the worst it has ever been and what that does is that hurts crime, it hurts the judicial system. You know if you don't give people education and hope, they become criminals. They get involved in drugs. So we have got to fix the public school system. I think we need to make these neighborhoods safer. And the third thing, you have got to give people economic opportunity. America for far too long has a small group of people who have got all the money and then we got a bunch of poor people who have no money. And because we have killed the public school system they can't get the education to make money and that is just not right.
-- jpt
October 28, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (15)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Yeah, I'm sure he knows how to send text messages too. He can solicit $5.00 donations every other day for his campaign! Works like a charm!
Posted by: Stef | Oct 28, 2008 4:26:56 PM
I thought Barkley was a Republican? Anyway, Barkley talks a lot and knows little. He'd make a great politician. If Palin can become governor, anyone can. You don't have to know anything...just be popular.
Posted by: indy_voter | Oct 28, 2008 2:57:04 PM
You know, I never really considered Basketball as a dangerous contact sport but after listening to Barkley, I stand corrected!
Muhammid Ali makes more sense than this guy does!
McCain/Palin ought to put this guy out on the campaign!
Put him on the 'View'
Posted by: My Head Hurts | Oct 28, 2008 1:52:44 PM
Karen is right.
With the possible exception of Birmingham, there isn't an inner city problem of the kind described here. Alabama is a totally different situation with four major metropolitan areas paying the bills for the rest of the State's education. The money is in the north concentrated around Birmingham and Huntsville but the political power remains vested in the southern counties given an antiquated constitution that vests power according to land holdings.
Education in the metropolitan areas is excellent in the north. The agrarian counties lag but the only way this can be fixed is by first replacing the 1909 constitution, so the first problem is reform. This has to happen but Barkley is not the likely candidate.
Chicago-style politics will not work in Alabama because this is not a state that needs tutoring on how to improve its corruption. It is already better at that.
Posted by: len | Oct 28, 2008 11:55:43 AM
To solve the inner city school problem you first have to get the kids to show up. School districts have to bribe the kids with prizes to show up on count day. One child won a car because she had perfect attendance. She has to wait 5 years before she can drive it. Until you get the parents off their butts and held accountable, no matter what the teachers or administrators do,nothing will help.
Posted by: Linda/Michigan | Oct 28, 2008 11:27:15 AM
Well, if a B-movie actor like Ronald Reagan can do it, Barkley should certainly be able to!
Posted by: chuck | Oct 28, 2008 11:19:13 AM
Barkley is Alabama's Biden.
A likeable buffoon that no one takes seriously.
Posted by: Concerned in OH | Oct 28, 2008 11:09:00 AM
I agree that schools are a root cause of our problems.
Perhaps Chas. can enlist the Woods Fund or the Annenberg Challenge to help. All that money spent on ethno-centric Ed must have done some good. That worked in Chicago; (murder capitol of the world) did it not? Perhaps skipping a day of learning and work every election will help.
Congress can give him some pointers too. Do they not have the responsibility for the DC school system?
Give me a break. Every cheap shot politician attacks the school system, yet none want to model urban systems to successful systems. Throwing up this straw horse does nothing positive and only hurts our children. The solution is the personal responsibility parents must assume when they bring children into the world coupled with intelligent efficient administration and teaching.
Posted by: smith | Oct 28, 2008 11:06:33 AM
Charlie: Drop a few dollars of your money into a school of your choice and see if you do any good- it doesn't have to be a big school , say one out in the country where poverty is high. If you do and have success then you can say that you have tested a system that you think will work and lobby for it, much like Obama lobbied for housing in Chicago such as his effort in Grove Parc.
Posted by: david | Oct 28, 2008 11:01:57 AM
"I can't screw up Alabama"???????? That's nice! I like Charles, but running for gov because you are under the assumption you can't screw anything up, is just wrong.
Posted by: samhiguchi | Oct 28, 2008 11:01:33 AM
Who wants to be the democratic Press Secretary??????? Campbell Brown for one, who else?
Posted by: me | Oct 28, 2008 10:59:48 AM
Why 2014, is that how long it will take to pay his gambling debts? What a travasty, what sham, what a mockary, it's a travashamockery!
Posted by: Gary W. Chavez | Oct 28, 2008 10:56:47 AM
Barkley's funny. We share the same alma mater, and he's well liked in Alabama. But he's never been taken seriously enough for an actual position of responsibility.
And this isn't the first time he's trotted out this line.
Posted by: Concerned in Ohio | Oct 28, 2008 10:38:50 AM
As Alabama has a lower unemployment rate that Michigan, NY, and Illinois, I will tell you Charles Barkeley wouldn't get elected dog catcher. Insulting Alabama won't get him any friends, and his drunken gambling binges will make his a pariah.
Posted by: Karen | Oct 28, 2008 10:38:37 AM
Vetting Obama yet?
Posted by: me | Oct 28, 2008 10:38:17 AM
Post a comment
