Date: Friday, October 29, 2010
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Four days before the critical mid-term elections, President Barack Obama is making the rounds with black media, talking to radio talk show hosts like Tom Joyner and gospel singer Yolanda Adams about firing up the black electorate on Tuesday.
We'll soon know whether Obama’s last stand before black voters go to the polls on Nov. 2 was too little, too late.
It’s a near-impossible challenge for Obama to recapture the same enthusiasm on Tuesday that Americans experienced during the historic 2008 election, when black folks were literally dancing in the streets knowing they helped elect America’s first black president.
But today, Obama is indeed asking black voters to repeat that unprecedented emotion and pack the polls like never before.
It’s a tall order.
Two years after Obama was sworn in as president, the euphoria has faded and the confetti has long been swept away - and African-Americans are faced with the harsh reality of a staggering 16.5 black unemployment rate with, sadly, no signs of the devastating trend reversing.
So, in the privacy of their homes, some blacks are asking that nagging question that few want to answer publicly: Are black Americans better off today than they were before Obama took office?
It may be an unfair question, since Obama has only served as president for under two years, and he inherited a monumental economic mess from the Bush administration. Still, some blacks are expecting super-human feats from Obama based on the president’s seemingly super-human campaign promises.
Truth be told, Obama should have started a conversation with black America some time ago. There’s no reason why Obama shouldn’t appear on black radio programs and speak with the black community on a consistent basis instead of orchestrating a whirlwind tour of black talk shows only when there’s an election-year crisis.
“Well, look, it’s true that, historically, sitting presidents, their party loses some seats during the mid-terms. That’s been a pattern. But these aren’t ordinary times,” Obama told April Ryan, a White House correspondent with American Urban Radio Networks.
“We’re going through a recovery from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Obama said. “And I think it is very important for us to understand that this election represents a choice between going back to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place and supporting the policies that I’ve implemented, working with a Democratic Congress, to help get us out of this mess.”
I had dinner this week with several black professionals from Washington, D.C. who are supporters of Obama – and will vote for him again in 2012 – but they expressed disappointment and frustration in the president’s perceived reluctance to address black issues directly and reach out to the black community on a more regular basis.
They also complained, correctly, that Obama needs more African-American advisors in his inner circle, in addition to his two trusted of aides, senior advisor Valerie Jarrett and Patrick Gaspard, the White House political director.
And Obama's carefully orchestrated “backyard chats” in neighborhoods across America should, frankly, include more black neighbors.
During the past two weeks, Obama has spoken with Joyner, Joe Madison and April Ryan and nearly all of the most prominent black radio hosts in the business about urging their listeners to vote on Nov. 2 and stop the Republicans from taking control of the House.
Obama is asking the black electorate to prove the pundits wrong – those who maintain that black folks will sit out the mid-term elections as they have done in years past.
“Well, here’s my expectation — that if we turn out at the levels that we turned out in 2008, we’ll win,” Obama told April Ryan. “It’s pretty straightforward. And so we don’t have to prognosticate. We don’t have to predict. We don’t have to get a crystal ball. Our fate is in our own hands.”
Republicans have turned next week’s elections into a referendum on Obama’s tenure as president, portraying him as a failed leader who couldn’t fix a fractured economy. So regardless of Tuesday’s outcome, Obama’s re-election bid for 2012 starts on the morning of Nov. 3.
If the president truly wants to energize his most loyal base in his quest for re-election, he shouldn’t wait until the last minute to visit black churches, barber shops and beauty salons. He should campaign in black communities across the country early and often.
It’s Obama’s responsibility to give black voters a legitimate reason to eagerly rally around his candidacy – again. And on this point, the president is right: His fate is in his hands.
Are We Better Off Than in 2008?
In the privacy of their homes, many blacks are asking what few want to Print | Black America Web
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