A one-on-one interview with President Obama by Cleveland's own Robyn Simone of Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM in Cleveland, Ohio's R&B, classic and soul leader in Black radio, Obama urges early voting, talks about Romney's anti-middle class tax cut proposal, Obamacare, foreclosures, medicaid and medicare, and gun violence following the killings this year at Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio

United States of America President Barack Obama, who interviews one-on-one with Robyn Simone (below), a popular radio personality with Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM, Cleveland, Ohio's R&B, classic and soul leader

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper (www.clevelandurbannews.com) (A one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama undertaken by Robyn Simone of Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM Radio Station in Cleveland during a campaign visit by the president to Cleveland to urge Ohioans to vote, and to vote early). CLICK HERE ON THIS LINK TO FIND YOUR VOTING LOCATION IN OHIO 

CLEVELAND,Ohio-Ohio is a key battleground state on the road to the White House and President Barack Obama, through the Obama for America Campaign, gave Cleveland, OH its respect as he acknowledged the majority Black city's number one R&B, classic and soul leader by giving Radio One's WZAK 93.1 FM radio personality Robyn Simone an exclusive one-on-one interview.  (Editor's note: Read the one-on-one interview below this brief synopsis).

America's first Black president is reaching out to urban radio stations all over the country and courting the Black vote, just as he did in 2008. And during the interview with Simone, which aired on WZAK, Obama talks about medicare and medicaid, foreclosures, and efforts by Mitt Romney and the Republicans to cut taxes for the rich on the backs of the middle class and the poor. The president also discusses Obamacare, and he speaks on gun violence in response to the shootings earlier this year by T.J. Lane  in the Chardon High School cafeteria, shootings in the Chardon, OH. community that left three students dead and several people injured. 

The assistant program director and mid-day radio personality for WZAK who has been burning up the radio airwaves since 1998, Simone has made waves as a true leader and professional in her field. Her herein one-on-one interview with President Obama reminds the Black community, particularly in urban cities in the pivotal state of  Ohio such as Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, Youngstown and East Cleveland, of the importance of voting, and voting early.

The following interview was transcribed by Cleveland Urban News. Com Reporter Johnette Jernigan from a previously aired radio segment audio with the permission of Simone and Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM.

INTERVIEW

Robyn Simone of Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM Radio in Cleveland: We’re trying to get this thing together here. 

United States of America President Barack Obama: I know that’s right.

Simone: We've got to vote! This election is so  crucial. 

What do we lose if we don’t vote?

Obama:  Let me describe just what the choice is here. Mr. 

Romney’s main economic agenda is returning to basically what we

tried under Bush. He’s just going to do more of it. Not only is he

going to redo the Bush tax cuts, he’s going to do more of it. He’s 

proposing a $5 trillion tax cut most of which goes to wealthy 

Americans.  The average tax cut for folks making more than $3 

million a year would be $250,000.00 a year. We just saw

a study that said the only way you can pay for that is for 

middle class families to pay an average of an extra $2,000 a 

year.

Simone:  Wow, we can’t afford that?

Obama:  I know you can’t. This is a pocketbook issue for middle 

class families. This does not even include all the cuts he’s 

[Romney] proposed in education like the community colleges, and

the work we’re doing for job training to the housing assistance 

and programs that obviously that are necessary to help Cleveland 

rebuild. [Whether it is] rebuilding roads and bridges that can put 

people back to work, summer jobs programs, you name it, he’s 

[Romney] looking to cut all that and he’s talking about [attacking] 

medicare and slashing medicaid.

Simone: What about foreclosures, because still in Ohio they are at 

their highest? There has been money that has been released and 

some families have been helped, but there are a lot of families that 

are still struggling with foreclosures.   

Obama:  The housing market is slowly beginning to improve. We

have been really pushing Congress to pass a bill that would allow 

every homeowner to refinance at historically low rates, and that 

would save the average family about $3,000 a year, which 

obviously would be good for the economy as a whole because 

people would then have more money to spend.

Simone: We've got to talk about gun violence because a lot of 

people are concerned here in Northeast Ohio, which is going 

through a tragedy  in the Chardon, Ohio community, and now the 

Colorado shootings.  Are there going to be new gun laws in 

place?

Obama:  Well, I think what we need to do is  pull everybody

 together, including law enforcement, faith based communities and  

elected officials, and just have a discussion generally about how 

we reduce violence. There is no reason why we should not be 

strengthening background checks and making sure we don’t have

 AK7's and automatic rifles on the streets.  

But part of it has to do with what kind of mental health services 

that are  being  made available in poor communities, including in 

African American and Latino communities. These communities are 

often underfunded when it comes to mental health. It’s important 

for us to have positive situations inside of schools so everything 

we’re doing on school reform is important.  The more we give 

young people positive paths to move forward where they can see 

where their lives are going, the less likely they are to engage in 

destructive violent behavior, so that has to be a priority.

Simone: On Obamacare,  how did you feel when [the U.S. Supreme Court upheld The Affordable Care Act earlier this year]?

Obama:  What was satisfying was knowing that 30 million

 people who don’t have health insurance are going to be able to get 

it, and if you already have health insurance the insurance 

companies won’t be able to jerk you around in the same ways 

they've done in the past. People are going to get free preventive 

care and young people will be able to stay on their parents plans 

until they are 26 years old. All those things, and knowing how 

many families I've met that would be impacted by it, makes all

 this worthwhile. 

Simone:  The platform you started with hope and change, what is

 going to be the platform theme for the next four years cause I 

already know you are going to win this thing?

Obama:  It’s still about hope and change, its still about believing 

in America and believing in American workers and American 

manufacturing American energy cause we have the best tools to

 beat any nation.  We have the best workers, the best 

entrepreneurs. We have all the ingredients for us to compete, we 

just have to solve some of our political problems in Washington.

That’s why people turning out to vote this time out is so 

important. So if you are listening here today, take the time, get 

registered, make sure you’re vote especially you young people out

there, you have no excuse.  The whole thing will take you 15 

minutes and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you are 

making the country better.

To follow Robyn Simone at Radio One's 93.1 WZAK FM 

 CLICK HERE .