News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. July 13, 2012: Yes this election may well be over as I predicted last week and Obama has already won …
But that’s no reason to stop telling the truth about Barack Obama. This week’s NAACP Convention sure told us a lot as President Obama decided not to show up. It spoke volumes.
Mitt Romney showed up even tough he has zero chance of getting any African American votes. Joe Biden showed up. Lots of prominent speakers did. But the speaker all the leaders and delegates most wanted to hear did not. Most of all in this Election Year. But NO Barack Obama. Not close.
You could say he did not show up in Houston for the NAACP for the very same reason he won’t show up on Martha’s Vineyard this summer. It’s not good for the image he wants to project. But that would be only partially true. Obama would have loved to have gone back to Martha’s Vineyard this August as he has for years.
He has no such remorse about skipping the NAACP Convention.
Still it’s all about image in both cases.
Sorry he did give a reason for not going to the NAACP Convention. In fact The White House put out a statement Obama would have gone to the Convention except for “scheduling problems.” That just adds an insult. Presidents don’t have “scheduling problems” unless they want to – not for events planned a year or more in advance. Not in an election year.
He could have told a partial truth. But the fact he didn’t, makes it that much worse. The White House could have said President Obama did attend back in 2009 and sees no reason to go again this year. But of course he never would say even that half truth. Because he would be open to criticism within the African -American community for having missed it now 3 years in a row.
There is no secret why President Barack Obama did not go to the NAACP convention in 2010 or 2011 and most of all not in 2012. It’s all related but it can be broken down into two related reasons.
First and most of all by far African American Barack Obama does NOT want to be seen identifying with “his” African American community for the most obvious and disappointing reason of all He is worried about WHITE votes in swing states.
Obama is not as convinced as I am he will win in November but even if he was, he’d still want as many white votes as he can get and that means white voters who have negative feelings still toward African Americans generally as a specific group of Americans identified by their skin color. Call it practical politics if you like I call it, more of the same from Obama who promised us he would be a Change Master but isn’t. A President willing to play to racial prejudices. In fact worst of all a Black President, believe it or not, wiling to play to racial prejudice among some whites.
A principled Barack Obama, let alone a Barack Obama who was a True Leader, would not shy away from the African American community but he sure has since becoming President. Even more to the point it is widely agreed, Obama has done nothing at all specifically for African Americans since becoming President.
But then again, compounding the problem, he does not have to since 99% of African Americans will vote for Obama for President in November no matter what. There is literally noting he could do to lose the African American vote. Because Obama is Black.
That would be mind-boggling in a “logical” world which is not ours of course. African Americans more than any other group of Americans are in a position to demand better from Barack Obama because he needs their vote. But they do not. Not close.
One reason I am “confidently” (sic) predicting Obama’s re-election is because he has all of the Black vote locked up. If he did not, I would not have predicted his victory in November at the beginning of July as I did in last week’s commentary. But no matter what, African Americans will not make demands on Obama.
African Americans are suffering more in this economy than any other group of Americans. Plus they are still suffering from the results of generations of past discrimination in jobs, education, health care, poverty and everything else. But they will not make demands on Obama and so diabolically that allows him rather to play to biased White Americans by avoiding going to the NAACP Convention, and even more by NOT addressing African American issues in a any specific way. African Americans get lumped into the nebulous huge group of dissatisfied Americans who all “look alike” to Barack Obama. A Colorless mass to be manipulated.
So the duel related issues here are as Obama campaign strategy distance himself from an specific identity with “his” African American community both to appeal to biased White Americans and in tandem so as not to have to make any promises to the African American community by addressing it.
Call it what it is – cynical politics as usual again made worse by a President who 1) promised to be a Change Master, and worse still by one who is 2) African American himself.
Here is what a REAL leader would do …
Make it a point to address the NAACP National Convention this year most of all. Stand up there to make a very important speech in the middle of his campaign. Relate the struggles of African Americans to the struggles of all Americans. Tell the NAACP audience and all of America if we do not make progress within the African American community we will not make progress across America for all Americans. That it is appalling in 2012 that by every measurable standard Americans of Color generally are below and worse off than any other Americans.
That this identifies a major flaw in American society that is growing ever larger that must be addressed. That Obama will then have the courage to say that one of his big disappointments of his First Term is that he did not improve the African American condition. That he will not fail to do is if he wins a Second Term.
This Barack Obama the Leader who does NOT exist would go on to say confident, proudly even defiantly that the key to American greatness for the future is that NO Americans be left behind and right now African Americans are being left behind, Latinos are being left behind Caribbean Americans are being left behind, Americans of every color and ethnic and racial identity are being left behind. And beginning with African Americans nobody is going to be left behind in a Second Obama Administration.
The problem in America is certainly not African Americans or all the other Americans left behind – the problem is the greed and the excessive power of the few that knows no bounds in America. This has to stop it will stop if you elect me again. I pledge I will not repeat all the mistakes and errors of my first term. I will be the President you thought you elected 4 years ago but did not. I believe in redemption I hope you do also. Give me a another chance I will not fail you again.
Needless to say Barack Obama will never say anything like that at the NAACP Convention now over or anywhere else before or after Election Day. Barack Obama is very happy with his life of privilege that will get him re-elected anyway. Why change?
Shame on you Barack Obama!
We don’t need more of the same the next 4 years. African Americans don’t. None of us do!
About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
