Obama breaks vow with jobless blacks

[Cali_Democrat]

http://thyblackman.com/2011/04/26/obama-breaks-vow-with-jobless-blacks/

Obama breaks vow with jobless blacks
April 26, 2011 by Staff

(ThyBlackMan.com) This is not an easy column for me to write. It’s never easy to tell someone you like that he’s a disappointment. I like Barack Obama. I liked him the first time we met back in 2006 when I took a small group of journalism students to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with the then-freshly minted U.S. senator.

I liked Obama even more when an aide to his presidential campaign invited me to a July 2007 speech he gave laying out his commitment to improve life for people in urban America — which for most politicians is a euphemism for black America.

“Today’s economy has made it easier to fall into poverty. … Every American is vulnerable to the insecurities and anxieties of this new economy. And that’s why the single most important focus of my economic agenda as president will be to pursue policies that create jobs and make work pay,” Obama said that day to his mostly black audience.

At that time, the nation’s overall unemployment rate was 4.7%. Whites had a jobless rate of 4.2% while the black unemployment rate stood at 8.1%. Today, the black rate is 15.5%, nearly double that of white job-seekers. I don’t blame Obama for the economic conditions that are responsible for so many blacks being out of work. The seeds of this problem were planted long before he moved into the Oval Office. But I do fault him for not doing more to fix this problem.

Read more....http://thyblackman.com/2011/04/26/obama-breaks-vow-with-jobless-blacks/

[elleng]

1. I understand disappointment; we're all disappointed.

I object to the headline. 'Vow?'

[Drunken Irishman]

4. It's all about the headline...

Because most people won't ever read the article (or do their own research).

Sad but true.

[ProSense]

2. USA Today column by DeWayne Wickham

Column: Obama breaks vow with jobless blacks

More definitely needs to be done to create jobs. That's what's lost in the budget debate.

[vaberella]

3. I don't see any remedies presented in the column, that the writer would have wanted.

Unfortunately, I don't think that anyone has a clue what would be the best answer to help those who are impacted worse than others---since everyone is very impacted. They have managed to extend unemployment checks, and given tax breaks for the poor and middle class.

It's when I read columns like this that I have to wonder, would these people accept having no tax break what so ever, and an increase--which is so often touted so that the rich people don't get taxed too.

Not to mention, the idea of tapping one set of minority groups to help them get jobs---can be problematic in an already heated situation when so many people---regardless of race are negatively and horribly impacted by this economic crisis.

[Arkana]

5. Um, usually when the President presents a jobs bill

it's not going to be restricted just to black people.

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

6. what do you know? another anti-Obama post from his biggest fan.

[Cali_Democrat]

8. So what are your thoughts on the article?

I always find it interesting when people fail to address the actual article itself, but always manage to attack the motives of the person who posted it. It tells me that they aren't interested in serious discussion of the issues.

Burying our heads in the sand will not make the job situation any better in America. We need serious structural reform and serious discussion must precede that.

Judging from the majority of your posts, you really aren't interested in serious discussion.

[emilyg]

7. kick

[dwilso40641]

9. How many

of the jobless blacks sat out the last election to teach Obama a lesson? We made our bed.

[KoKo]

10. The last election didn't have Obama on the ballot...and many folks

didn't really have any choices. I blame Tim Kaine for the losses in 2010. He did a lousy job and believe me we lost a good Senate Candidate from my state because the DNC didn't support her...it was left up to the Progressives and Act Blue and we couldn't get the help we needed from the DNC. This happened all over the country where candidates who had enthusiasm weren't supported and so the Repugs pushed the money in and either a DINO or the Repug got back in.

I'm not saying that there weren't some people unhappy with Democrats...but that was Tim Kaines job to make the Dem Party even stronger. He was asleep at the switch. When Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts when to a Repug that should have been the first wake up call about Kaine's lack of leadership. It got worse from there.

Also, Mid-Terms don't get young folks out voting because they either don't know the candidates, judges and School Board Members, etc. and so it's not worth their time to vote. That's why Dems need active folks on the ground working with younger voters and educating them. There's wasn't money for that.

[Mimosa]

13. ^ Exactly so. I was a poll watcher in 2008 and in 2010 ^

KoKo, you explain accurately what happened. It was predictable that young and ethnic voters would not be enthused about midterm elections.

[MadMaddie]

11. There is a fix but until Democratic Party get's on the bandwagon

and starts pushing the joblessness rate will continue to stay at it's current numbers.

First I don't see this as just a black problem, this is a U.S citizen problem. We have too many U.S citizens unemployed.

Fix
1. Stop ALL HB1 Visas
2. End the incentive program for Employers outsourcing jobs to other countries
3. Give incintives to companies to bring back jobs especially in big cities and the midwest
4. End NAFTA and CAFTA

Just those things will jumpstart the country. If companies don't want to abide by the laws then the government should help small businesses in the same industry grow.

Another reality check, jobs are always the last thing to come back from a poor economy.

[tritsofme]

12. This article is long on complaints, but offers no solutions.

The president does not have a magic wand.

[ChiciB1]

14. I'm MOST Certainly Dissapointed With Obama & My "Now" Perception Of Him... BUT

I'm just as DISSAPOINTED with elected Democrats too! The Leader should be whipping some ass, and the others should be STANDING UP for "we the people!"

Not seeing much of either...

But I did enjoy watching the clips from the "thing" last night, but one night of laughs does not a Nation make.
:shrug:

[Honeycombe8]

15. How many of those black unemployed voted in 2010, I wonder?

I'm sort of getting tired of hearing how everything is Obama's fault, when MOST Democratics didn't even show up at the polls to vote in 2010.

We as citizens have some responsibility for the way things are right now, and if we didn't vote, well, that's the least we are supposed to do.

If you read that article, blacks are actually doing better than when Obama took office, right? 8.1% were unemployed, while 4.2% whites were unemployed. Now, almost 9% whites are unemployed, while 15.5% blacks are unemployed. The white unemployed number has more than doubled, while the black unemployed numbered has risen less than that. Not much less. But less.

One reason may be that men and minorities work more often in manufacturing and blue collar jobs. Those are the jobs that were hit hardest by the recession.

We saved the blue collar jobs at GM, yet so many on this board criticize for doing that.

Seems to me that the administration gets criticized no matter what it does.

Same thing with the poor. My sister is in a nursing home on Medicaid. Now, she's disabled, so she can be excused for not having voted in 2010. But she didn't vote even before then. It's possible that she's never voted in her life (she's in her 50's). Now that Medicaid stands to be cut signficantly, which would directly hurt so many people....I can't help but wonder...how many of those who rely on Medicaid bothered to vote in 2010 and years past? It seems to me that they are ready to shell out blame for their benefits being cut, but they're not willing to do something as basic as vote for the right people to protect their benefits. (I give a pass to those who are infirm enough that going to vote would be a signficant hardship.)

[zalinda]

16. Obama has said

it is not the responsibility of the government to create jobs.

zalinda