Obama’s America:
A Critique of the Critics
Michael Ondaatje March 13th, 7pm Newcastle City Hall
Barack Obama’s aura has faded. In the media, the President is attacked mercilessly by opponents, who point to sluggish economic growth, a stubbornly high unemployment rate, ballooning federal deficits and mounting debt as evidence of a failed, even disastrous, first-term agenda. Republicans call him a socialist. The left see him as a Wall Street puppet. Independents think he’s a wimp.
In the next public forum hosted by Newcastle-based think-tank The New Institute, Dr Michael Ondaatje challenges these assessments of Obama by looking beyond the media spin and carefully scrutinizing the President’s actual record of governance, at home and abroad.
Turning to the Republican primaries, he will also look at the political alternatives to Obama – Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul – and weighs up what a conservative-led America would look like as the 2012 election looms.
Who will win the election? And why? Employing rigorous critical analysis, this lecture will attempt to answer these burning questions.
Dr. Michael Ondaatje is Senior Lecturer and Head of History at the University of Newcastle. He is a prize-winning researcher and teacher, and a regular media commentator on American history and politics. In 2011, Michael was also a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University.
THIS FORUM IS OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC VENUE: Hunter Room, Newcastle City Hall
DATE: Tuesday 13th March 2012
TIME: 7.00 till 8.30pm ADMISSION: $5 Donation
FURTHER DETAILS: www.newinstitute.org.au or Angie at 0422401129
NEXT MEETINGS:
April10th :- New Transport Options for Newcastle – Ed Duc, Kyle Loades (NRMA); May 8th:- What’s happening to the Hunter Development Corporation, and the Hunter Infrastructure Investment Fund?
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