I came across an article yesterday that made me cock a "are you serious?" eyebrow. A blog article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal entitled: "Obama’s Poll Problem: White Backers in ’08 Are Deserting Him" says the following:
As the folks in the White House begin looking toward President Barack Obama’s presumed re-election campaign in 2012, there is one statistic that might worry them more than any other: Little more than a third of white voters currently think the president is doing a good job
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I know these numbers need some "unpacking" and I have some citations below that gets at what these numbers really represent. But it’s not the raw numbers that bother me. It’s the sentiment BEHIND the numbers.
The article referenced above cites numbers from the April 21, 2010 Quinnipiac Poll which breaks down President Obama’s approval rating among subsets of the population as follows:
Tea Party members disapprove 85 - 10 percent of Obama, while liberals approve 77 - 15 percent, as do moderates, 54 - 34 percent. Conservatives disapprove 76 - 18 percent. Men disapprove 50 - 41 percent while women approve 47 - 43 percent. White voters disapprove 55 - 35 percent while black voters approve 92 - 6 percent.
So President Obama’s approval rating amongst liberals is still a healthy 77%, but is 55% amongst White voters. It’s a whopping 92% amongst Black voters. The same poll says that a clear majority of Hispanics support President Obama.
Let me be candid. For an awful lot of Black folks, Barack Obama is our boy! We got his back. 24-7. Ride or die. This is just a reality. Yes, he does things that we disagree with. Yes, we feel he’s maybe not done enough to address any number of issues that are crushing the Black community disproportionately. Al Sharpton, Marc Morial, Professor Cornel West have all raised their voices in an effort to "remind" our dear Brother Barack of what he said on the campaign trail. But understand something - we’re used to having to wait a long time to get what we rightfully deserve from this country. A looong time. How long did it take to end the trans-atlantic slave trade, end slavery, tear down Jim Crow, the list goes on and on. Black folks know what it feels like to wait for the political winds to catch up with conditions on the ground. Some of you, not so much. But like I said, we’re ride or die with him.
Let me hip you to another reality. Attack our boy and you’re gonna see us close ranks in a hurry, and we’ll be looking at you sideways (translation: with suspicion and a bunch of attitude) if you appear to be siding with racist white folk. You dis our boy, for many Black folks, you just became "one of them".
Now I gather that this diary is not going to make sense to a bunch of you, and to many it will seem patently unfair. I can hear the comments now: "So we can’t hold the President accountable?", "We can’t criticize the President for fear of pissing-off African-Americans?" To be clear, I’m not saying any such thing. Criticize, debate, throw President Obama under a bus, do whatever you want to do. But do it with your eyes open, and recognize that most of us African-American’s ain’t going there with you.
And should some of you decide to really go bananas and attempt to primary President Obama, you should know what that’ll cost you. Let’s look back a second. African-American’s in 2008 turned out in RECORD numbers motivated by the chance to vote for a Black Man as President. According to a US Census Bureau Report released in July of 2009:
About 131 million people reported voting in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, an increase of 5 million from 2004... The increase included about 2 million more black voters, 2 million more Hispanic voters and about 600,000 more Asian voters, while the number of non-Hispanic white voters remained statistically unchanged.
and this:
Additionally, voters 18 to 24 were the only age group to show a statistically significant increase in turnout, reaching 49 percent in 2008 compared with 47 percent in 2004. Blacks had the highest turnout rate among 18- to 24-year-old voters — 55 percent, an 8 percent increase from 2004.
So in 2008, there were 4 million new voters who were NOT White. 95% of Black voters and 67% of Hispanic voters voted for Barack Obama. I hated math, and I’ve got to get back to work, so I’ll let y’all figure out how many people that translates to. Suffice to say, it’s a lot of people. Many of them young Black men and women who were inspired by CULTURAL PRIDE to vote.
The "Primary Obama" crowd will win very few of these folks to their side. In fact, and I can say this with a fair amount of confidence, that a movement like that will cause a racial schism within the Democratic Party that will be deep and ugly.
I’m not saying this is pretty, and I’m not saying it’s fair. But it’s the truth. Take it to the bank.