Obama navigates tricky racial landscape as he courts black voters at Sharpton convention

[alp227]

Source: Associated Press

He avoids race, so the story goes. He can’t afford to alienate white voters, black people will vote for him again anyway, so he has little to gain by approaching such a volatile subject.

Yet on Wednesday, President Barack Obama is scheduled to make a foray into racial territory by speaking in New York at the Rev. Al Sharpton’s national convention — an early step on the tricky path that Obama must navigate in order to engage black voters who are crucial to his re-election.

On the one hand, there’s nothing unusual about a president fulfilling a campaign promise made to a staunch political ally whose radio show is broadcast in 40 cities each weekday. Nor is it odd for Obama, who has spoken to other civil rights groups, to connect with Sharpton, a frequent White House visitor whose fame flows from his aggressive brand of black advocacy.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/obama_navigates_tricky_racial_landscape_as_he_courts_black_voters_at_sharpton_convention/2011/04/05/AFpOTHlC_story.html

[bluestateguy]

1. What a sneering condescending article

by a Georgetown cocktail party reporter.

[No Elephants]

8. +1

AP :puke:

[Grassy Knoll]

2. " Black people will vote for him again anyway" ?

What a dumb and ignorant statement, are you looking for a job on fox news ?

[aaaaaa5a]

4. Don't you know… blacks only vote for blacks!

Just ask Presidential candidates….

Carolyn Mosley Braun

Al Sharpton

Alan Keys

Herman Cain

Lenora Fulani


All of them had/will have very successful Presidential runs based on strong black support.

[pettypace]

5. it's true

he's the incumbant president.

Who else would they vote for?

[rocktivity]

3. Blacks did NOT "vote for Obama anyway"

they came out for Obama because he convinced them that he could deliver enough WHITE voters that the black vote would put him over the top. No presidential candidate can live on the black vote alone. It's the white independents, moderates, and progressives he let down that he ought to be "courting."

:headbang:
rocktivity

[struggle4progress]

6. As an old pasty-looking guy of Nordic ancestry, let me point out that the civil war

amendments passed a century and a half ago, so we should have had three or four Presidents of African heritage by now; and women have had the vote for a century, so we should have had ten or twelve female Presidents by now

There are plenty of smart people here who have native or Hispanic or Asian ancestors -- and I don't know why more of those people don't regularly show up as candidates for top office

This is a ridiculous situation, and the article is imbecilic

[virgogal]

10. Since there have only been 16 presidents since women got the vote

the idea that we should have had 10 or 12 of them as president is ridiculous.

[struggle4progress]

11. There have been twenty or twenty-five elections: by all rights, a woman should

have won half of them

[No Elephants]

13. If a field of experienced women ran in every Presidential election, maybe.

Playing fields don't level in 5 minutes .

Dem Party bigwigs like Reid and Daschle annointed Obama before he announced. When that happens with a woman, she'll probably get the nomination, too.

[nalnn]

7. Hmmm

Well, better Sharpton than Farakhan I guess.

[virgogal]

9. .

[No Elephants]

12. The only tricky racial landscape is created by racist shit stirring by AP and WAPO.

When Bubba spoke to one roomful of white folk after another, did people write race-based articles about it?

African Americans have been part of the Dem base since FDR, JFK and LBJ.



"Dem President seeking re-election addresses key segment of Dem base. Film at 11."

[No Elephants]

14. the more I think about this, the madder I get. If he were a Rethug, the headline would have been

"President faithfully keeps four year old promise to base."

[MellowDem]

15. It is different...

since blacks are not the "base" of the Democratic Party. The Republican base is much larger, more monolethic, and homogonous, not to mention on the far right of the spectrum, in other words, extreme. The Democrats are much more moderate and varied, a much bigger tent really. Blacks have always been considered one of the groups that make up the base, a specific group to make overtures to, like Hispanics, or "working class whites" that we heard ad-infinium with Hillary during the primary, or the college educated, etc.

Obama's challenge is to try to recreate the enthusiasm for getting out the vote as in 2008, but I don't think that will happen. Many people, blacks included, are not nearly as enthusiastic this time around. We saw that in the mid-terms. In all honesty, this is where the extremism of the Repubican Party will come back to bite them. As soon as the Republicans get their hate machine going, that will fire up the Democrats, but Obama himself has been so disappointing to so many that the enthusiasm will have to be from Republicans being insane haters rather than having a President that fights for progressive ideals.

The only reason Obama has a "racial landscape" to traverse is because the conservatives will create one again in the general election.

[Arkana]

16. I read this article and I kept waiting for the author to drop the word "Negro"

somewhere.

Seriously.

It made me feel all dirty.