pamela? all of you voted for president obama last year. tell me something, how many believe that the next generation will be better off than this generation? how many of you? we have two and a half hands up. i can see the difference between this and this. ok. >> bill. >> there are too many things. i think washington politicians spend so much time attacking each other that they do less for the people. when they are elected after their term they are planning their re-election. >> for 20 generations, america always handed the baton forward. and in most cases we have always been able to do it. you did not raise your hand when you thought that the next generation is going to be better off. the reason? >> i feel tax enslavement. i don't feel that there is the opportunity that other generations had. where is the new frontier? we need a new frontier. we need something else to make that promise in america. >> vick, you didn't raids your hand. do you have kids? >> yes, i do but fortunately they are old

>> his family values -- pamela? >> his family values. >> he'll be a one-term president. >> ok. >> are you a republican? >> not -- >> ok. >> turn it around and i'll give you the first shot, john. and that is the thing that makes me most uncertain about barack obama is -- >> his leadership skills. >> pamela? >> the war, i guess -- afghanistan problems. i'm not sure. >> ok. >> his military knowledge. >> there's nothing about him that makes me feel uncertain about what he's doing. >> lack of qualifications for the position. >> and just let me follow up on that. is there anything that you feel in the first 10 months the way in which he's handled the job has shown his lack of qualifications? >> well, he's good of making public appearances and meeting with leaders, but i don't know that anything is actually getting done -- >> let me throw the question right back at you. is there anything that he's done which underscores from your point of view the lack of his qualify cases -- qualifications? >> i think his opinion or vacil

tonight i'm with pamela newkirk. you tell me a little bit about your book. >> yes, it's a compellation of african-american letters and what i try to do is present a multidimensional portrait of black life through their own letters so it includes the letters of extraordinary people who many have heard of like dr. martin luther king and benjamin baniker and ida b. wells and unsung people, slaves, just ordinary people throughout history. >> can you give me an example of one of these unsung people. >> oh, sure. there are many -- several letters from slaves who had who were just writing to each other, to family members from whom they'd been separated, you know, letting them know how they are and trying to find out how they're loved ones are faring. not people we would have known of. >> how did you come upon this project and how do you select the letters? >> well, that was pretty insane. i went through thousands of letters over the course of five years. and some of the themes naturally emerged so i wanted to look at black

tonight i'm with pamela. >> yeah, since the consolation of african-american letters spans from the 1700s to 2008. what i try sad is black life through their own letters. it includes the letter ofs extraordinary people who many have heard of, like dr. martin luther king and also unsung people, slaves, just ordinary people throughout history. >> can you give me an example of one of these unsung people? >> oh, sure. there are several letters from slaves who are just writing to each other, to families members from whom they've been separated. letting them know how they are. trying to find out how they their loved one are fairing. not people we would have known of. >> how did you come upon this proct. how did you select the letters? >> well, that was pretty insane. i went through thousands of letters over the course of five years. and some of the themes naturally emerged. so i wanted to look at black family life through letters. and so after a while there was sort of organizizing principal through these themes. then i arranged them chronologically. i tried to create a narrative to show the hi

pamela on the republican line.i am a registered republican and voted republican all my life and this year i voted for mr. obama to be our president and i cannot understand why use that at 54 years old after working my entire life i cannot find a job anywhere and the thing is, it is not just college students, it is teenagers, people my age, people 30, 40, we are outsourcing everything in this country. why? why are we not working? americans have a backbone. host: what john did you most recently have? your career field? caller: i owned a bar up until 2004 and then i worked in the restaurant industry, which i had already been -- always been in. even with that, people can't afford to go out and eat. they have to buy groceries. don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with eating at home, but there is no excess money anywhere. what is going on? why is it that debt collectors -- say you vote a bill. the call you up and demand money, paid in full. host: "the chicago tribune" has a front-page story not particularly about unemploym

. >> hi, my name is pamela sorenson, and my mom is a teacher actually, and you said that in 2010 you'll be addressing the conversation can of the quality of teachers in america. when will you be addressing the payment of teachers in america? >> i am trying. [laughter] not too long ago i, we introduced a proposal that would call for radically different compensation system near washington, d.c., and basically what -- it was very interesting. basically, what we called for is a two-tier compensation system. every teacher would have their choice of which one to go onto. you have the red tier and on the red tier you got about a 24% raise in base pay and your rights and privileges essentially stayed the same, or you could take a 45% raise in base pay, $10,000 in cash, and you would have bonus possibilities based on your student achievement level growth that were huge. so just as an example, a first-year teacher in d.c. right now makes $40,000 a year. we structured this so that that same teacher who decided to go on green who saw the greatest achievement gains for their kids could make up to $7