According to The Hill, unhappy members of the Congressional Black Caucus “probably would be marching on the White House” if Obama were not president, said CBC Chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver. “If [former President] Bill Clinton had been in the White House and had failed to address this problem [unemployment among blacks], we probably would be marching on the White House,” Cleaver told The Miami Herald in comments published Sunday. “There is a less volatile reaction in the CBC because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president.”
This is a fairly devastating rebuke to the president. It’s essentially saying if he were judged by the content of his programs rather than by the color of his skin, he would be facing a revolt within his ranks. And the truth is, he should. The economy, which the president has mismanaged so badly, is hurting just about everyone in America; but probably no group is being hurt as much as minorities. (The black youth unemployment rate is nearing a staggeringly high 50 percent.)
Representative Maxine Waters said something similar last month: “We’re supportive of the president, but we’re getting tired, y’all. We want to give [Obama] every opportunity, but our people are hurting. The unemployment is unconscionable. We don’t know what the strategy is.”
Earth to Waters: There is no strategy. There is, at this point, simply and only an appeal to class envy. That was reaffirmed by the president’s comments this morning. This approach won’t create jobs; it will only create resentment. And at some point one might hope it would dawn on the CBC Obama’s policies are doing terrible injury to the constituency they are supposed to represent.
