on this edition of "our world with black enterprise," we examine year that was -- the anniversary of president barack obama's historic election. did washington put the brakes on the candidate of change? a special roundtable up next. >> when 10% of your population

isn't working, that's a real problem. he's got to address that, find a way to explain to the americans that this is what i'm doing to put you back to work. ♪ our world ♪ our world ♪ our world hello, everyone. it's been a little over one year since the historic election of president barack obama. today we're going to look in-depth at how the candidate of change has dealt with the issues he addressed on the campaign trail. election night, 2008, was an emotional and historical moment. but for president obama, it was short-lived. the new commander in chief would face an uphill battle to get the country out of recession.

the obama administration also inherited two wars. on the domestic front, automotive, financial and housing sector bailouts and the stimulus package were implemented to try and stabilize a teetering economy. >> today does mark the beginning of the end. the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs. >> however, unemployment has reached an all-time high at 10% and job creation is flat. and although democrats have pushed a public health care option through the house, obama care sparked protest and divided the country between party lines. calls of socialism were tempered with racist remark about the president. needless to say, his plate is full. joining us today to discuss the president's first year, our political watchers, michelle

bernard, president and ceo of the independent woman's forum and msnbc contribute irjor joe watkins, and marcus mavery, author of the biography "condoleezza rice and her path to power." thank you all. let me do the normal television piece. give a grade at this point to this president. michelle? >> i'm soun undecided. i go back and forth between an a-minus and a "b. it is definitely too early to tell, but not in the a-plus range yet. >> i think as a communicator he gets a b-plus. he does that so well. in terms of policy, probably closer to a "c." >> i give limbhim a b-plus. the administration hasn't told the why what his vision is for the united states where he wants to take us. i think they've gotten policy right in the vast majority of cases. this president came in with the

worst situation since world war ii. this is a country that was facing an economic calamity and this was a president who actually rescued capitalism. >> let's be understanding and realistic, particularly after only one year. the real grade is incomplete. as we look at this, what do you think is his biggest challenge, marcus? is it in fact, as we saw this past week with him kind of going to chill and putting his charm on and getting the house at least to say yes to health care, is that his biggest challenge in fact? >> his biggest challenge is economic. policy aside, two wars aside, his biggest challenge is economic. the reason the administration's contraited so much on health care is because it makes up 18% of the united states economy. if you don't get that right, even if you were to get people working again, those lucky enough to have jobs, if we have little raises this year for next year, those raises will be eaten up by rising health care costs. >> michelle, to a great degree we all understand economics. to steal the line that put

clinton in office, it is the economy, stupid. but, that's not going to be fixed in the immediate future. at least he could put to something if he gets health care through the house. >> that's where i disagree. the economy, unemployment rate from earlier this week we know is at 10.2%. that's a staggeringly high number. for a lot of americans, this focus on health care when you don't have a job at all seems inconsequential. >> my point is doesn't he need something to point to immediately? he won't be able to point to the fix of the economy immediately. >> i don't know if pointing to health care is going to be what saves the first year of his presidency, if we're talking about saving it or what does it in. when you talk about his biggest challenge, i think it is the people on the far left who are just begging for him to be more "progressive," more liberal. i think they are going to be tougher on him than congress. >> across the board you ale gave

him fairly decent marks but there is this talk about saving his presidency. is that strictly political? >> no. the economy is very, very real. when 10% of your population isn't working, that's a real problem. it is probably not going to get better in a year. that's a real problem with mid-term elections coming in 2010. he has to find a way to explain to americans this is what i'm doing to put you back to work. >> how much has the demeanor of this president, the kind of conciliatory, bring us all to the table, nature of barack obama, who by all accounts is really that kind of person, how much has that hurt him, particularly with his party who you would have thought would walk in lock-step with a man this adored and has not yet. >> if you compare this president and his presidency thus far to the presidency of his predecessor who was a man who was elected without a mandate and yet governed boldly and decisively, said this is what i believe and i don't really care what anyone else believes, i'm going to make this happen you compare this president to that president, this president

still has a very serious mandate, yes he's governed much more tentatively. as you said, believes in compromise and splitting the difference. he doesn't believe, despite what republican rhetoric will say, in actually forcing his opinion down other people's throats, including his opponents. he's actually governed this health care proposal, it is a bipartisan proposal even if only one republican supported it in the house. these ideas are not democratic idea ideals. >> is the fight between the moderate democrats and liberal democrats? >> if you have a large party that spans the political spectrum as democrats do today, this is a liability. >> michelle, isn't the mistake taking all the time that they took to fine that one republican vote as opposed to saying we've got enough votes, forget it, move on? >> he could have done that but that is not why people elected barack obama. there are people who feel he is too conciliatory. republicans and democrats

believe in this sort of political mandate that you have to stick to every principle of your party. barack obama has tried to govern from the center. there are people who feel that he has not done so, that he's governed purely from the left. people on the left feel like he hasn't gone far left enough. i think that he is doing the best that he can with what some people would say is a wildly rabid liberal congress. we'll take a break. when we return, more matters, domestic issues, as well as whether this president owes black america something. >> the first african-american president will be running for re-election in three years. guarantee you it won't work again. with an epa estimated 32 mpg highway, chevy equinox offers up to 600 highway miles between fill ups. that's like going from l.a. to the grand canyon. or from aspen to amarillo. you won't get nearly as far in a rav4 or crv. but, you'll still meet a few

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we're back talking about the first year of this presidency. one of the things we were talking off camera about is the idea that there is this sense of -- you brought it up and compared it to bush's gut feeling versus intellectual feeling that all suggest that this administration's doing -- joe, isn't there a need to strike a balance on both sides? >> well, ultimately, how you're judged by the voting populous is by what you do now by the decisions that you make. you've got to make hard tee significances and stick with them. they may not be popular at the moment but they have everything to do with whether or not you get re-leaked in 2012. this becomes a challenge for every single president. a challenge for ronald reagan,

challenge for george bush, a challenge for bill clinton. it was a challenge for george w. bush and it will be a challenge for barack obama. >> an interesting piece in the "new york times," bob herbert wrote we're turning our attention elsewhere when we really need to look inward to the united states and worry about some of the problems here versus afghan, iraq and the like. he isn't saying you obviously turn away from the world's problems or issue of foreign affairs that may affect you down the line but you can't turn a blind eye to the problems here in the united states. >> i think he's absolutely right. i think that it is about the economy. i think tom friedman called is the other day in speaking about the obama presidency, the president needs to talk to the nation about nation building at home. >> tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it. >> can you build a nation if you don't have a job? i mean to build a nation, you

need the troops to do so. in order for me to go out and there make this better, i have to feel better about myself. >> i think right now we need to step back and take a little context into all this. president's been in office nine months at this point. he's facing an economic cataclysm when he came in, facing multiple wars. no american president had ever inherited this mess in our lifetime. so the fact is, i think when you say what's next for him? i think we also can get too trapped in this particular moment. look at 10.2% unemployment and think, oh, it will always be that way. unemployment is a lagging indicator. nobody is going to hire people until they're confident the economy is going to keep growing. >> let me bring something into this discussion, joe. this white house has done everything it could to keep almost everything at arm's length when it has to do with race. we talked about the skip gates incident. perhaps the most famous of this year. but we have seen other things

that they keep saying has noing to do with race, has nothing to do with race. does race play a role in how he will be perceived? >> president obama, one, not because he happened to be african-american but because in 2008 a majority -- clear majority of americans felt that he was the best person to lead our country going forward. but they will look to see the decisions that he makes and it will have an impact, certainly. >> michelle, look at race as a bigger picture as relates to this white house. often when i think sometimes race certainly has something to do with it, let's use it and utilize it as a tool to talk about it in a national context, this white house has shied away from. >> i think he has been absolutely brilliant in staying away from race the way that he has. i think jumping into the skip gates mess was just an enormous problem and it took his attention away from things that were a lot more important. >> let me take you then to the idea of just good-old politics, quid pro quo. 90%-plus of black america voted

for this man. is there a particular issue that they can co-op, we can co-op, say this is our issue, you need to do something about it. >> jobs. in the end of the day it comes back to the issue important for every american -- jobs. 1 in 10 people unemployed. in the african-american community i'm willing to bet that number spikes higher. which means whether you're in detroit, new york city, montgomery, alabama, wherever you are, if you aren't working, you want to have a job, be put back to work. what you want to hear the president say is how i'm going to get you back to work. >> but from a purely political point of view -- may not be a popular thing to say, may not and nice thing to say -- the answer to your question, he doesn't need to worry about us. we're going to looking for that anyway. >> there are whispers -- we've all heard them in our community, whether or not this president is taking the "community" for granted. can he afford to take black america for granted?

>> again, it's not a nice thing to say, but, yes, he absolutely can. >> you're right. >> african-americans have been taken for granted in the democratic party for a long time. it works. in state leaks sum of elections jersey, turnout can be weaker so it doesn't work all the time. but at the national level, it's always worked. the first african-american president will be running for re-election in three years. i guarantee it will work again. you have to worry about the white voters in indiana and white voters in pennsylvania who gave him those states. that's what it takes to win the presidency. >> i know this last cycle in 2008, there were some precincts in inner cities -- i know this for a fact -- that reported 100% turnout. 100%. that means every single person. these are in some of the strongly african-american precincts and some inner cities. 100% turned out. why? because there was tremendous motivation to elect the first african-american president. now if people aren't working in 2012, if people don't like health care because it messed up

their business, they had to lay people off in order to give them health care, or go out of business -- >> people will be working in 2012. i guarantee you, more than today. people will have health care. >> why do you buy that? >> if we're believing in the dynamic of change which we are saying political can happen, who suggested the history we've seen economically is going to continue along the lines? >> because we always get in this trap in any economic cycle, we think this will last forever. we've repealed economic cycles. boom time. things are last forever. all bad times don't have to -- people will never work again. we get into these traps in which we as people think because we're in a horrible situation now it will endure forever. >> what will endure forever? >> we have had the worst recession since the great depression. and you know what? it is already over. it could be a double dip, but minus that there is no way it is going to happen because it's never happened before. >> nancy pelosi's hilt care plan

puts a punitive tax on small business owners. >> income surcharge as well. >> people are going to feel that. >> the united states is the only democratic rich country in the world that does not have all of its citizens covered for health care. we're the only country in the world where big pharmaceutical companies can charge you how ever much they want for the drugs you buy. >> hang on to that. we'll take a quick break here. be back in just a moment. >> barack obama, some people feel, has a reputation of being a dud. i always say ask the dead pirates. they will see that he is not a dove when it comes to issues of national security.

we're back, closing out our thoughts on the first year of the presidency of barack obama. i want to get a sense from you guys. in order for you to fix the economy, at some level down the road, you've got to stop paying the amount of money you're paying to consistently keep the increase of troops, which is what's being called for. so if you want that consistent, that's even more money on this fire. it's almost as if you have two ends working against the middle.

>> he really is in quite a conundrum when it comes to afghanistan and iraq and how does he balance the true national security interests of the united states versus our at-home nation-building right here within our borders. afghanistan, has anyone ever gone into afghanistan that was not afghan and actually survived? i know that he's decided now sort of split the difference in terms of the additional troops that are going to go into the country but that's something he'll have to sit down and very seriously think about, particularly after we move to 2012. republicans have always looked at the party that was hawkish and national security, we were safer in their hands. and barack obama, some people feel, has a reputation of being a dove. i always say ask a dead pirate. they'll see he is not a dove when it comes to issues of national security. but what he does in the long term, i don't know. >> here's another thing we talked about. there is a push from democrats

who will face re-election in 2010. it is not just a health care that's concerning them about how it affects them. >> his biggest issue is going to be the members of the democratic party that want him to swing so far left that we won't even be able to see him anymore nap will cause problems for the democrats who are elected on his coattails and that came into office from republican states in the midterm elections. people who were independents, oba obamakins, republicans, and people who want to be to be a centrist will be disappointed. >> i agree we'll see the result in 2010 that we'll see probably a strong republican comeback and take-back of a lot of house seats and some senate seats as well. why? because the president's biggest problem becomes his own party and people on the far left who are trying to pull him further

left every day, big challenge. then how do you create jobs in that environment? >> is that what wishful thinking, too, jim? >> who would say that? >> we were talking earlier about history and what's history tell us about what is likely to happen in the future. history tells us it is likely republicans will overplay their hand again an make the president look more sympathetic and more x competent and less ideological than the republican party. which would actually bring independents back to his cause. his biggest challenge is how -- it is the curse of the democratic party being the majority party. how do you both keep moderate and conservative democrats from red states happy at the same time you try to keep progressive and liberal democrats happy. that's his greatest political challenge. if he can square that, then the democrats' losses are staunch in 2010 and the president is re-elected handily in 2012. that's a big challenge.

>> we'll be back right after this.

once again, my thanks to our ge guests. greatly appreciate it. thank you for watching. visit our website at black enterprise.com. i'm ed gordon and thanks for miking "our world" your worlaki.