Jackson Free Press

According to a blackamericaweb.com article, West pulls his support of Obama, saying that the president has no backbone and does not do enough to uplift the black community:

West, the outspoken Princeton University professor and civil rights activist, is unabashedly unloading on Obama, and he doesn't seem to care if the White House is offended.

Once an eager supporter of the president, West has turned on Obama and refuses to hold his fire. He accuses Obama of not doing enough to uplift America's black citizens. He called Obama a "black mascot" for Wall Street and described the president as a weak leader.

"I just haven't seen the kind of backbone," West told Politico Monday. "I just haven't seen the real spine, not just at the level of rhetoric, but in execution."

That's tough talk from West, who enthusiastically backed Obama in 2008 and helped elect Obama as America's first black president. But two years later, West has become one of the president's most vocal critics, insisting that Obama is a poor advocate for underserved communities and people of color.

"It's not just President Obama, but it's the whole [White House] team," West said. "They just tend to keep distance from black folk, politically" until election time; "then they come running back."

"There's too much social misery out there, man," West added. "The last thing we need is a weak and feeble reaction to the right wing."

Frankly, I'm not surprised to see this happening, and I expect more of it. I knew that if Obama could not keep all of his promises by the start of the election cycle, people would begin to withdraw their support. For me, I don't see this as Obama not having a backbone - I see this as his backbone being frequently stomped on since he was willing to make concessions on things such as the federal budget. As an independent voter, I can sit back and look at both sides to draw a conclusion. Based on what I have observed, I think that the former Obama supporters expected the president to be able to fix everything before the next election. I voted for him, and I did not expect it because I knew that those who did not agree with his agenda would fight him tooth and nail. Even if he is re-elected, I think that some of his goals won't be met for decades because of the current mindset of radicals on both sides, which is more about power than actually changing things for the better. Regardless of who is in office, until all Americans decide to work together and put aside petty differences, the underserved segment of the population will continue to suffer needlessly.

What do you think?

Previous Comments

ID

163249

Comment

West is very obviously correct in his criticism and assessment of Obama's performance and current mindset. I can't see a viable argument to the contrary. It is disingenious and phony of us to criticize others for ignoring us despite our loyalty and not Obama who we supported almost to a point of blindness. Obama is undoubtedly afraid to show any connection or knowledge of the struggles and predicaments of Black Americans in America. Yet he wants us Black folks to go out and vote unanimously for his reelection as he moves closer and closer to trying to please his enemies and haters while screwing us. Only damn fools would do that. Why should we vote for or assist anyone who is afraid to acknowledge our presence and needs for fear of alienating and offending his and our enemies. Yes I know he is in a helluva fix where he is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't with his enemies. So I say it's time he says to his enemies : screw y'all for trying to have business as usual and trying to turn back the hands of time. Is it a smart decision to waste your time to no avail trying to please your enemies and in turn wind up losing your friends and allies. Only a fool and enemy, be it obvious or latent, would do this to us. No one expects Obama to keep all of his promises. His friends and supporters don't expect him to abandon all of them either without a knock down and drag out fight to the near end. There is a wrong and a right, not just a middle, and I expect people I vote for to fight like hell to achieve what is right. And I much rather see them go down fighting than caving to every whim of the enemy and devil. His presidency has been a resounding failure not for lack of accomplishments but for lack of resolve and effort for democratic principles. Working together is what got us into two unnecessary wars and the fix we currently find ourselves in. I thought we people who voted for Obama wanted more than the lesser of two evils. I haven't completely given up on him yet, but I'm about to. I can stand losing but I can't stand not fighting. I choose not to be sacrificed just for a reelection opportunity. Cowards live a depressed, deceived and depleted life then die miserably without anyone missing or sorry to see them go. Reid and Pelosi fought valiantly and are heroes in my mind despite losing power. I wish Obama had just a little bit of Coleman Young (former Detroit mayor) in him. With all of this said, believe it or not, I still wish Obama the best and would rather suffer through him than a repugnant republican, which can't do any wrong in the eyes of their constituents no matter their unmistaken kinship and adherence to the policies of their leader, Lucifer or Satan.

Author

Walt

Date

2011-04-21T16:41:21-06:00

ID

163252

Comment

Gee, it's taken West and Walt this long to figure out Obama is a lousy President? I knew he would be before the election.

Author

BubbaT

Date

2011-04-21T18:52:45-06:00

ID

163253

Comment

Latasha, how can you work with people who want to destroy Medicare and Social Security? Who want a flat tax, which is Republicanese for cutting taxes on the wealthy and raising them on the poor? Who shamelessly peddle the lie that Obama was born in Kenya? Our differences are not petty. This is war. This is war, so both Walt and I will vote for Obama, even though we are revolted by the way he is in bed with evil men like Timothy Geithner, much as Grace Jones climbed into bed with Roger Moore in A View to a Kill, in a scene that still gives me erotic nightmares, because why would anyone want to do that with Roger Moore? So much black love atop so much cottage cheese. But I digress. It goes too far to say that his presidency has been a resounding failure. There have been great successes. If it wasn't called universal health care, we would all sing his praises for adding millions of people to Medicaid, for bringing strict regulation to the insurance companies. That is progressive. His EPA has been more aggressive than any other in history, and they are still on the march. That is progressive. But it still feels like failure because he has not come at the core thing, the necessary thing, the confrontation with the sociopaths and vampires who own this country and no longer even want to throw the rest of us scraps. He is the not the man we need to fight the devil. But the alternative is horrifying.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2011-04-21T19:04:58-06:00

ID

163258

Comment

Well, I am both disappointed in and supportive of President Obama. I am supportive because I do think he has progressive principles and he articulates them well. I am disappointed because he does not fight enough for those principles and ends up with milquetoast policies that have to be spun in order for the poor and working class to see how they "benefit too". This method, while practical in a political expediency sense, is not what Obama’s supporters, at least more grassroots supporters, expected. Now, we have to also indict the Democratic Party in this instance, because Obama had a super majority in the Senate and a majority in the House, and his Democratic colleagues did not do enough to help push his progressive agenda along in their respective houses of the legislature. But Obama has to be criticized as well for capitulating too easily in the name of “coming together” when Republicans were not interested in governing. But, a more salient question for the black community is how do we hold the “First Black President” accountable to us? What do we expect out of a president? I think the black community is well within its right to expect that the president who was elected in large part due to the support of the black community, to govern from his base, just as Bush did, Just as Clinton did, just as Reagan did. That, to me, has been the most disappointing thing about the Obama presidency. He has chosen to govern from no particular base that is apparent in order to, in my estimation, not appear as a “Black President” or as a “President for all people”. That is a drastic mistake. No one man can stand on principle and preside for everyone. That is impossible, and results in him presiding for no one. But, because he is a principled man, we see his heart and thinking, but his leadership is lacking in that area. But, also, the black Community must also present an agenda to the President for which to him accountable. There are strident issues of educational and health care access, economic opportunity, prison-industrial exploitation, and militarism that are grinding on black families and thus black communities. If the president addresses these issues with his progressive heart and courageous leadership, the whole country would improve. Yet, these things seem to be some of the first things he saves, but at the same time he capitulates to things that exacerbate and work against these issues (Pell Grants are still available, but tax cuts are still allowed, in an effort to say, “at least we still have Pell Grants”). This is the watered down policy that comes from not standing and fighting for the principles he campaigned on. I agree with Walt and Dr. West in that he needs to stand more on his progressive principles, even if it means he goes down with the ship of his presidency. sense

Author

Renaldo Bryant

Date

2011-04-22T13:50:47-06:00

ID

163261

Comment

Barry Steve Obama is a well spoken African-American. I bet his enemies have said more times than we can count Lord where did this ______ come from? Even Glenny Beck, Rush Limpbaugh, Derailing Palin and bat_hit crazy Backman can't deny that. Barry must not have grown up in the typical black household and neighborhood hearing broken English and suffering the all too common misery of fighting to survive against an unjust, racist and capitalistic system. I just wish Barry would go in one day and say to his cabinet members you sorry mother ruckers ain't doing enough to turn the economy around and unless something happens soon some of y'all asses ain't gonna be around here much longer. Personally, if I were Barry, every chance I get I'd bump into Jimbo Boehner in the hallways and walkways and say what's up my ______ ? What you wanna do? I can get down any time you want to. Tell you buddies I said so too! Right on. See you in a minute. And I'd make a trip over to that Supreme Court and tell leadership let me holler at you for a minute, player. What's up with this bull schick of allowing corporations to give money infinitely to the republican party in order to destroy the fabric and in-built safeguards of ensuring fairness, due process, safety, enfranchisement, voice and equality for all regardless of your wealth or poverty. Player sump got to be did about that. Y'all handle it or I will. Yes, I know he did something similar to this that made the other man lose his supreme coolness under pressure. I agree Blackwatch that it is worth presenting an agenda to Barry to see if he will act progressively or at all on it. Doing so kills any illogical argument by him or his cabinet that he didn't really know our needs and/or wishes, and it insulates him again to some degree from the unjust criticisms he would soon get from the above named trash and others of the (G)one (O)ff (P)arty). Blackwatch, I'm hearing Barry is becoming concerned about losing friends and minorities, especially Black people, and has lined up an impressive cast of White House Blacks to hit the byways, highways, neighborhoods and ghettos of Black, Brown and other minority Americans to tell us he hasn't forgotten us despite how it looks, he just doesn't know what any of us want or need. I plan to make some of those meetings around the country and say as often as anyone will give me a microphone that they tell Barry's mixed ass that I'm long fed us with his tactics and games and that unless his half-black rump wants to be a regular brother in two years I had better see something happen I want to see from a light-skinned brother riding around on 2000 in Air Force One. I know Barry's job is supposed to be the issues of the whole country, not just the majority, the rich, corporations or minorities. He has done a good job looking out for the rich and corporate well-off and struggling. But as Mrs. Anne once said to Ole Master as he reached home after leaving the slave quarters committing another of his countless rapes, what about me? So Obama what about the rest of us? What about us Blacks, Browns, Yellows, others, et al?

Author

Walt

Date

2011-04-22T16:35:42-06:00

ID

163262

Comment

Latasha, how can you work with people who want to destroy Medicare and Social Security? Brian, this is what I mean by the underserved suffering needlessly. The right wing is so fixed on the no-new-taxes philosophy to the point that they are willing to make sure that the wealthy keeps more of their money at any cost, even if it means poor people dying because they have no healthcare or the elderly going without an income and having to live on ramen noodles and dog food, and they may not even be able to afford that. When I was too sick to work, Medicare and Social Security sustained me until I could work again. The system isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than having nothing at all, which I have also experienced. I think a lot of people have forgotten that the recession began before this administration, so we were already in a mess, and I don't expect a quick rebound from it. If McCain won the election, his voters would have been angry at him too. Whoever is at the steering wheel is the one who catches the most heat.

Author

LatashaWillis

Date

2011-04-22T19:33:25-06:00

ID

163263

Comment

I am disappointed because he does not fight enough for those principles and ends up with milquetoast policies that have to be spun in order for the poor and working class to see how they "benefit too". This is how I feel, too. I'm generally supportive of Obama, but there are times that I feel that he doesn't have the courage to stand up for what he believes and even doesn't stand up for the average Americans. For instance, why didn't he try to push for the public option during the health care debate? Over 70% of Americans were in favor of it. While I can't necessarily make the conclusion, had a public option passed, the Dems would still be in the majority in Congress. I also feel that the president caves too much as well, like with extended the tax cuts for the wealthy during the lame-duck of the last Congress. I do hope that the Obama of the last two weeks or so is the Obama I will be seeing from now on, as he has begun to connect with people on the issues of Social Security, Medicare and rising gas prices.

Author

golden eagle

Date

2011-04-22T22:59:08-06:00

ID

163265

Comment

Now I'm hearing Donna Brazille is supposed to be talking to Dr. West. This will be interesting because Donna is very smart and diplomatic. I hope she knows Cornell is not short on intellect either or the courage to tell the truth. Some people are asking why didn't Cornell go to the White House with his concerns instead of criticizing President Obama in the media? What the Black President can't be criticized or disagreed with publicly by Black people? Why not? He has a powerful position and hard job. He knew how hard the job was before he sought it. He also knew who his then enemies were. He couldn't have been clueless enough to believe he had the power to change them, otherwise he didn't spend enough time on his other side of the family dealing with issues and problems unique to us. Needless to say, Obama is not beyond criticism by Blacks just as he didn't have a problem accepting all of that support and love we gave him that he hadn't actually earned. Lots of Black people have developed strong hatred for Tavis Smiley for not trusting or giving Obama a pass in the first place. Tavis was improperly judged and may turn out to be smarter than any of us ever imagined. Personally, despite Barack great talent and charm, I was always a little worry about how he would respond to extreme pressure because of stories I heard about how he acted as Editor of Law Review at Harvard when confronted with issues facing us or race, because of his awkward fondness for Reagan in his book, and his penchant for not including some of the fighters among us as top advisors. No amount of education should blind us from the truth, which is that no group of outsiders know more about another group than that group themselves, and no group is automatically or necessarily more capable than another based on wealth, exposure, education or connections. Some times they are and sometimes they aren't. I prefer a mixture. I realize this defies how things are usually done in the world, especially America. One group having more power is not necessarily evidence of greater knowledge or know how.

Author

Walt

Date

2011-04-23T15:55:45-06:00

ID

163267

Comment

My misguided republican friend, Bubba, Obama is not a lousy potus by any stretch of the imagination. He deserves an award for trying to work with y'all (trying to convert the devil to Christianity, if you will). My and Dr. West's problem only goes to his fear of so many of his supporters because of the racist and socialist slandering of him you all have done and will continue to do. Our argument is that he's not fighting hard enough to maintain promises and policies we thought he believed in. It's not like the repugnant republicans aren't trying to trap, slander, trick and convert him at every level. He's staggering but he's not drunk and he's running from the bottle therefore I have hope and haven't given up on him yet. The POTUS has a hard job before him, one you all spend every day trying to make even harder, and as I expected because he is considered Black and neither dumb, docile, a pawn or loyal to the GOP, I knew he would have a messiah-like walk as potus. Unlike me, he believes he can overcome his enemies through truth, love, brilliance, hard work, reason, compromise and dedication - the American Dream, so to speak. I can hear you saying my buddy, Bubba, we got something for him he's never seen before and it's not a dream either. Smile. I just hope it's not Forrest, Simmons and Bowers, or their replacements, if you know what I mean. If President Obama gets elected again, which I expect him to, he will then tell you all where to go, how to get there, and the time of arrival. President Obama has already improved the image of America world-wide with his brilliance, good judgment, and lack of xenophobia and colonial principles. Furthermore, he has caused republicans or the likes to act as if it were the 1860s, 1920s and 1960s. I hope my comrade ,Bubba, you know enough about the history of America to know where I'm coming from here. I'm praying President Obama with the help of the Almighty and the remaining sane and good people of America can withstand the unjustified hatred and stumbling blocks constantly aimed his way and can improve the economy and gas prices and give us 4 more years of a good man holding the position of the POTUS. Since you love America, Bubba, like I do, I know you are hoping for the same. In fact, Bubba, I suggest we pray together for this then sing a beautiful song Ray Charles made even more beautiful with his rendition of it. Here we go, "Oh beautiful, for........"

Author

Walt

Date

2011-04-25T12:19:53-06:00

ID

163325

Comment

Bubba our joint political party prayer and singing of America apparently apparently inspired our leader and troops to finally find Bin Laden. President Obama is sump nother Bubba and arguably already the best Commander in Chief the nation has ever enjoyed. Health care bill and finally finding Bin Laden is sump the republicans couldn't do no matter (Couldn't Do It) Bush, (Sick and Wick) Chaney, and (Privatize the Army too) Rumsfeld. Is Obama still sorry, Bubba? I think not! Barack knew on intelligence and instinct Bin Laden wasn't in any cave or hole hiding, and instead was living it up in a mansion with concubines and everything. Even I knew that Bubba that 10 years of cave searching was futile. Capturing Bin Laden was good news upon my return from across the pond. I had to attend a wedding and didn't want to go but the Prince insisted.

Author

Walt

Date

2011-05-02T17:06:33-06:00

ID

163329

Comment

Walt- Our joint prayers have gone unanswered, Obama is still President.

Author

BubbaT

Date

2011-05-02T18:02:37-06:00

ID

163629

Comment

Latasha have you heard the latest Dr. West is saying about Obama? Black America Web had a column yesterday where Dr. West is saying Obama is not one of us culturally or mind-wise and in so many words is another man in our color, if you know what I'm saying. He also said Obama cussed him out recently. Just like a weak Obama to jump Dr. West, his former ally and a brother, but not Beck, Gingrist, Bacman, Palin, Rush or anyone in the GOP. Dr. West is keeping it P. I. - Personal Integrity. Your Potus is weak LW and Dr. West a brave and honest soul is pointing it out. Go figure. And what is making me so mad, Al Sharpton is so attached to Obama's jock that he won't even do his usual job of discerning and attacking. Is he on the take now? I'm going with Dennis Kucinish this time.

Author

Walt

Date

2011-05-25T16:57:49-06:00