I predict President Obama’s intervention into New York politics will backfire because he asked another African American politician to not run again. I guarantee people will see it as him treating another African American differently than he would a white candidate. It was a bad move.Governor Patterson may be perceived as a joke in some circles, but to many African Americans, he is a black politician that has looked out for their interests.
If Obama continues to freely throw African Americans that don’t appeal to the massesl under the bus, I think it will come back to haunt him at election time. I predict African Americans will start to seek out African American candidates who can and will address how racism is playing a role in politics. And if Obama has to compete with one or two African Americans, they may split the votes; and he may not necessarily get the votes he needs to move on to a second term.
4wrdthnkndad
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We’ll see, Dad. New York is pretty frustrated with the gov, who everyone was prepared to embrace when he first took office.
He lost that good will through his own actions.
It’s widely predicted that the fact that the president has stepped away from Paterson is going to liberate black support that didn’t really want to stick with the gov, but felt they had to out of loyalty.
But if Obama can say, “Don’t run”, that frees them up to agree.
Susan-personally I don’t care whether Paterson wins or loses. If you ask me, I’d bring back Spitzer. Considering all the political scandals since he left, his actions seem sad but ridiculous. As for Obama, I experience him as doing all he can to dismiss and discount the role racism plays in his presidency. And if he doesn’t make it a standard policy to weed out all candidates he doesn’t see as winners, regardless of race, he is going to be questioned for his response to Paterson. As I observe it, Obama says things about black people that white america is comfortable with-but in doing so, he leaves many african americans feeling like their experience has been invalidated. I just hope he doesn’t take this constituency for granted. Remember African Americans denied him a victory over Bobby Rush and were not as quick to embrace Obama until fairly late in bid for the presidency. And while history suggests an incumbent president has a leg up on his opponents during the second election. History does not include former black presidents…..and up until now, history would not prepare us for congressman calling the President a “liar.”