Daddy Clay: Hello welcome to the lab – I’m Daddy Clay and I have with me a very special guest host.

Daddy Gregg: I’m Daddy Gregg.

Daddy Clay: We’ve brought Daddy Gregg along for a special celebration here in the lab, of this political season. So it’s a political season, obviously the presidential race is on everybody’s mind, so we’re going to take a couple of days here in Dads Labs to kind of break down the candidacies of the two major candidates – basically through the lens of fatherhood. Just to try and evaluate these candidates as dad’s – what are the issues that are important to us and where do these candidates stand through that very specific lens?

Daddy Gregg: Okay well what particular policy things apply most to us as dads?

Daddy Clay: Well obviously we are going to be looking in the areas of education, health. Today’s show is going to be all about Barack Obama and then we’ll move over to your guy tomorrow. So after reviewing materials – going to barackobama.com which is kind of his campaigns website and there’s also procon.org – this is a non-partysum website – they’re basically side-by-side – you know that talks about these issues.

But anyway as we’re reviewing these issues, a number of things struck me Daddy Gregg - about the Obama campaign platform.

Daddy Gregg: And what were those?

Daddy Clay: Okay lets talk first about the family leave act. Which is of course the act that protects your job if you go off after the baby is born.

Daddy Gregg: Okay

Daddy Clay: It’s lame – ours is extremely lame compared to countries like…

Daddy Gregg: You mean the fact that it was ever enacted is lame?

Daddy Clay: No! It’s lame compared to any other country – Sweden for example – as an extreme example, but all European nations have better leave packages are state – 6 weeks unpaid leave and you get to keep your job basically what you get after a baby’s born

So the Obama campaign’s going to improve that act a little bit – what they are going to do is they are going to add 6 days of unpaid leave for illness or also family events.

Daddy Gregg: But is it a slipper slope and the next thing you know – we’re France and we’re taking all of August off?

Daddy Clay: Yes hopefully! It’s hot. Looking at their education platform – they’re sort of saying that no child left behind is a good idea but it was implemented poorly - they are going to do a better job. A lot of their emphasis was on early childcare and addressing the issue of rising tuition.

Daddy Gregg: And I can definitely say the issue of college tuition is very important to me – I have two children, eventually I hope that some day they will go to college and I certainly do not want to pay for it, so any help the government can give me in that respect. The 0 – 5 early years – well we have wives to take care of that.

Daddy Clay: You’re going to get your ass kicked when you get home basically. So the college thing – this is their proposal, that everybody gets a $4,000 tax credit towards college tuition – which actually given current tuition rates, cover two thirds of the average public University’s tuition – everybody could use a little help, the costs here are just skyrocketing.

But really $4,000 if you look at it – is kind of a drop in a bucket – well whatever you can get.

Daddy Gregg: That doesn’t sound too bad.

Daddy Clay: Earlier on they were talking about 0 – 5, they’re talking about increased care – one thing that I thought was interesting, promoting flexible work hours – giving incentives to businesses to offer non-traditional work weeks, there are work from home packages – which I think its something that really helps parents. And that he was going to model that by implementing those kind of rules in the federal government. That the federal government would take more of a family friendly flex-hours work from home approach – which I think is brilliant.

Daddy Gregg: No, not a good idea. The federal government already doesn’t work very well. You want to have Obama make it even work less well.

Daddy Clay: He’s talking about doubling the amount of federal money that goes towards creating after-school and summer programs for kids – hey that’s good. We all need that.

Daddy Gregg: And where is he going to get that money from?

Daddy Clay: From you. Lets talk more about health-care because that’s a big one. An average family in America pays more than $13,000 a year in medical benefits and the Obama campaign talking about a form of universal health-care. You can keep your current insurance if you like it or you can switch over to a government plan – which basically has the same benefits that they give to federal workers – including Senators and Congressmen, and really basically providing a safety net.

It doesn’t really change that much of a system – it provides a safety net for those folks that are uninsured right now is really the biggest benefit. One way you could evaluate these guys in terms of being a parent is to look at them as parents. You know what I mean? So what kind of dad is Barack Obama?

Daddy Gregg: What kind of dad is anybody who dedicates their lives to serving others?

Daddy Clay: I think you’re right – anybody that seeks the presidency is not going to be the ideal dad because they’re ambitious, and ambitions and parenting are sometimes at odds. I think if you look at that family, I think they are very concerned about their kids, and it seems to me that these are good parents – it’s a happy healthy family.

I know that family issues are going to be on the table if these guys are elected, because Michelle Obama is a super mom and I think there are some interesting policies there that make us a pretty friendly family candidate.

Daddy Gregg: You’ve given me a lot to think about.

Daddy Clay: Well that’s what we do here at Dad Labs. Hey thanks a lot for joining us.

Daddy Gregg: It was my pleasure – I cant wait for tomorrow.

Daddy Clay: So come back tomorrow – where we are going to take over the lounge and we are going to bring to you our conversation all about John McCain’s candidacy and parts of his platform that pertain to us as dads. That’s all for us this week – we’ll see you next time in the lab.