The 2012 elections are only three months away. President Obama may or may not win a second term. Nevertheless, all indications so far are that he will, again, benefit from a significant majority of the black vote. In 2008, he won with a staggering 95% of the black vote in 2008. Some estimates put that at closer to 98%. Which is about as monolithic as political bases get. Still, there are now growing signs of cracks in his most loyal base. A recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling of North Carolina citizens showed Obama's support from black voters there dropping to 76%. Still a significant majority but also indicative of significant slippage. Baltimore Pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant is an Obama supporter and his Empowerment Movement is working to get out the black vote for Obama in 2012. But even he admits "in 2008, we were excited to see a Black man running for president. But we were so excited by the prospects of a Black president that we failed to establish a Black agenda." http://flcourier.com/2012/08/09/black-president-but-no-black-agenda/ A reasonable question for Blacks to ask prior to casting their vote in 2012 is simply this. Has Obama earned our continued support? And, the answer to that is not one which paints Obama in a particularly appealing light. The unemployment rate for African-Americans today is currently about 14%. Even under former President George W. Bush [no friend to African-Americans despite his unprecedented selection of black faces to influential positions in his administration] it never got that bad. To quote a popular tune by Janet Jackson "But What Have You Done For Me Lately"? On foreign policy, Obama also has a lot of questions to answer. You would think, after George W.'s infamous "Mission Accomplished" moment, Americans would have figured out that just because their POTUS says the war is over, does not mean the war is really over. Obama had a similar moment two years ago, in August of 2010, with him publicly declaring "the end of combat in Iraq". Yet, a couple of months later, journalist Danny Schecter wrote a piece for Al Jazeera in which he revealed that the US leaving Iraq was actually due to the Al-Maliki government demanding it as a result of pressure from Iraqi citizens themselves, not because of any commitment from Obama to end hostilities. Quite to the contrary, Schecter claims that the withdrawal occured despite "futile negotiations and pressure from a US government desperate to stay in the country by any means necessary": http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/12/2011121412317948778.html Who, really, is Obama? Do any of us really know, or are we ignoring who Obama is, what he does, and, instead, focusing blindly upon who we want to believe he is because is 'one of us'?
Firstly, he's not one of us. He's a bi-racial. Secondly, he doesn't need our vote. He has the gay and Hispanic vote. He'll be okay.
CTJ: If we had been truly holding accountable all of our black elected officials beforehand, i. e., took stands based on higher standards than "what's in this for me" b. s., we wouldn't be in this siuation! So yes indeed Obama reflects us at our worse too! FYI..
Yes, because he is married to a Black woman, who is a fashion icon among the Black cultural elite. So even if brothers don' vote for him sisters will.
If that is all it takes to get black people to the polls, that would truly be sad. I would hope their decision would be based on more then simply, he has a black wife. So does Herman Cain but this fact never stopped us from analyzing his actions, motives and what it would mean for blacks if he were elected not that he had a chance IMHO. I don't know why we are so unwilling to do the same for Obama. IJS...