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'?
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'?
