Hope you enjoyed your one term.
"Key backing for Obama slips in N.C." by Tracy Jan Globe Staff / October 17, 2011
DURHAM, N.C. - When Lucille Richmond cast her ballot for Barack Obama three years ago, she, like many African-Americans, embraced the historic opportunity to help elect the nation’s first black president.
But waiting in line at the county employment security commission last week, the 52-year-old grandmother - who lost two food preparation jobs and is searching for full-time work - can’t muster the will to support Obama for a second term.
“I don’t see what he’s done,’’ said Richmond, a Democrat. “I’m not even going to waste my time and vote.’’
The president will visit North Carolina today in an attempt to stem such sentiments as he promotes his jobs bill. Obama’s most ardent supporters in Durham’s black community worry that waning enthusiasm among African-Americans may prevent him from repeating his razor-thin North Carolina victory of 2008.
The trip reflects the importance of a critical southern swing state to the reelection campaign. The Tar Heel State will also be in the national spotlight next summer, when Democrats converge on Charlotte for Obama’s nominating convention....
Yeah, they pissed off unions in doing that because North Carolina is a right-to-work state, but where else they gonna go, right?
The ambivalence about the upcoming election stands in direct contrast to the fervor and excitement that swept Obama into office in 2008, the first time a Democrat had carried the state since Jimmy Carter won in 1976. Obama’s message of hope and change resounded with a wide electorate and drew many first-time voters, minorities, and young people to the polls.
That is what happens when you BREAK YOUR CAMPAIGN PROMISES to people.
But the momentum appears to be lost. Obama’s job approval rating has dropped - even among African-Americans....
Some Democrats here who campaigned and fund-raised heavily for Obama in the last election say they remain undecided - and are even considering voting Republican for economic reasons, if the nominee is Mitt Romney or Herman Cain.
President Romney.
Now say it again to get used to it.
Others who elected Obama with high hopes that he would help lift the black community say he has failed to deliver on that expectation and has not demonstrated that he cares about their concerns....
Get in line.
Obama came to Durham, home to the “Black Wall Street’’ in the early 1900s, to court early votes four years ago. Now marked by mostly empty storefronts, the historic Parrish Street had housed a proliferation of financial institutions such as North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Co., the country’s oldest and largest black-owned insurance firm. Bronze sculptures and wall plaques in front of the last remaining business from the time, Mechanics & Farmers Bank, pay tribute to the era - “a black capital for the world to see’’ that Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois once held up as a model for the black middle class.
Some executives who enthusiastically embraced Obama after meeting the young, charismatic senator now say they are not so sure.
“I wanted to see an African-American become president before I die, and I never thought I’d see it,’’ said Maceo K. Sloan, chief executive officer of the money management firmNCM Capital and whose family started North Carolina Mutual in 1898.
But Sloan, a 61-year-old Democrat, said he is disappointed that Obama has not done more to address problems affecting the black community, especially when it comes to inequities in education and the criminal justice system. He was surprised, given Obama’s background as a community organizer, that the president appears to be “somewhat disconnected from the average trials and tribulations of African-Americans in this country.’’
See: Obama the Oreo Cookie
Except that he's blue on the inside.
“Obama got elected on the platform of hope, that things are going to be done differently,’’ Sloan said. “But it’s the same old same old.’’
He also criticized Obama for filling his administration predominantly with Ivy Leaguers - “nobody with any street sense’’ - and for spending his political capital during his first year in office on health care reform when what people needed more were jobs....
Obama’s defenders say there is a disconnect between the president’s genuine efforts on behalf of urban and disadvantaged populations and perceptions in the community. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank in Washington, said the president’s initiatives such as health care reform, the stimulus package that kept many public workers in their jobs, the extension of unemployment benefits, and grants to historically black colleges as well as increase in Pell grants benefited many African-Americans.
“If I were to criticize the Obama administration, it has a very good record with regards to African-Americans but it does not boast about it,’’ said David Bositis, senior political analyst.
Many African-Americans in North Carolina say they still sense a loyalty to Obama among black voters, of whom more than three-quarters identify themselves with the Democratic party. African-Americans in this state are more than twice as likely as whites to approve of the way Obama is handling his job, said Mileah Kromer, assistant director of the Elon University Poll, the most comprehensive public opinion polling of North Carolina. Obama has an 81 percent approval rating among blacks here compared to 31 percent among whites.
The kind of grass-roots fervor that drives voter turnout is in shorter supply. At North Carolina Central University, a historically black public college in Durham, a 2007 Obama campaign rally had to be moved from an auditorium to the football stadium because so many students sought to hear him speak, many shelling out $25 a head for the opportunity.
“I wish we had been able to keep that same momentum,’’ said Brianna Hargrove, a history and political science major who as a freshman in 2008 volunteered on the “Obama Squad’’ to canvass the neighborhood and register voters. “A lot of people looked at his victory as ‘Oh, we got Obama in the White House. We’re going to be okay.’ But we should have been focused also on getting the people into Congress that Obama needs to get things done.’’
He HAD ONE for TWO YEARS!!
At the White Rock Baptist Church, Pastor Reginald Van Stephens is struggling with an internal moral battle over whether to support Obama in 2012. Raised as a Democrat but now unaffiliated, Stephens voted for Obama in 2008 and would like to support him again.
“But I can’t automatically decide I’m going to give him my vote. I have to keep myself in check and not let my heart run wild because he’s an African-American and he’s smart,’’ Stephens said. “I have to consider if someone else can break the gridlock and lead the country.’’
If Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, ends up the Republican nominee, Stephens said, “here’s a man who can help the economy recover. Not because he’s smarter than Obama, but because he may be able to get those forces in Congress who are staunchly opposed to Obama to actually do what’s better for the country.’’
Community leaders here who support Obama say it is critical that they fight voter apathy. The North Carolina NAACP, which does not endorse candidates, trained county leaders during its state conference last week on drawing African-Americans to the polls.
“It’s about invigorating the black folks to say, ‘Hey, our guy has the ball. He’s running with it and he’s gaining yards. We’ve got to block for him because he’s going to score for us,’ as opposed to saying, ‘God bless him but come November, if I don’t have a job, I can’t be bothered to get out and vote for him. Que sera, sera,’ ’’ said Raymond Pierce, dean of North Carolina Central University School of Law who served as a deputy assistant secretary for civil rights under President Clinton.
Sigh.
The “whatever will be, will be’’ sentiment, he said, “that’s what Barack Obama should fear, and the opportunity to ensure that it doesn’t go that way is slipping.’’
--more--"
"For a jobs bill in pieces, Obama hits road in NC" by Julie Pace Associated Press / October 17, 2011
FLETCHER, N.C.—Rolling through small Southern towns in a campaign-style bus, President Barack Obama on Monday pressed lawmakers back in Washington to start taking up pieces of his rejected jobs bill and mocked the Republicans who had shot it down in total. The Senate moved to vote soon on one part, a plan to help states hire teachers, but the proposal seemed doomed.
Related: Obama's Reelection Pitch
Deep in the mountains of politically important North Carolina, Obama soaked up the region's autumn beauty at the same time he assailed foes of his jobs legislation, accusing them of failing to listen to the public.
Back at the Capitol, Senate Democrats announced they would act first on a single part of Obama's plan, a longshot bid to help states hire teachers and police. A Senate vote could come as soon as the end of the week. If not, it would probably fall into November because the Senate plans to take a break next week, even as Obama urges quick action....
Yeah, they are really working hard for you down there.
Republicans denounced the bus trip as nothing more than a taxpayer-funded campaign trip through two must-win states to try to bolster Obama's standing for the 2012 election.
As he traveled along on his imposing black bus, there was little denying the presidential politics at play at each stop.
Related: Obama's Campaign Caravan Costing Taxpayers Plenty
Over three days, Obama is covering the countryside of both North Carolina and Virginia, two traditionally GOP-leaning states that he won in 2008 on his campaign's ability to boost turnout among young people and black voters....
--more--"
More evidence North Carolina is going to hell:
"A 15-year-old student was shot in the neck with what appeared to be a small-caliber bullet during a lunch period outside a North Carolina high school yesterday, and police have not been able to find the gun or any suspects....
--more--"
Time for the Tonight Show and bed:
"Obama takes cuts at GOP on fourth ‘Tonight Show’
President Obama stopped by the NBC studios in Burbank, Calif., amid a three-day fund-raising and policy swing through Nevada, California, and Colorado. It was his fourth “Tonight Show’’ appearance....
Host Jay Leno opened the interview by noting last week’s capture and killing of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy. He was caught after a US drone and NATO aircraft stopped a motorcade trying to flee a rebel attack.
“I think it obviously sends a strong message around the world to dictators that people long to be free, and they need to respect the human rights and the universal aspirations of people,’’ the president said.
Unless they are Palestinians.
This is the same leader of a country that tortures and who rains down drone-fired missiles on people?
--more--"
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Obama Bombs on Tonight Show
Why not? He's bombing or threatening to bomb a dozen countries at least.
