07:08 PM Friday, November 20, 2009
Disillusioned About Obama Already? Get a Grip
Date: Wednesday, November 04, 2009, 6:02 am
By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com
This time last November, Barack Obama persuaded Americans to beat back their doubts – along with this country’s history of slavery and racism – and elect him president.
A year later, that struggle continues.
Most polls now put his approval ratings above 50 percent, something that tells me most Americans get that it’ll take longer than 10 months to clean up the eight-year mess left by the Bush administration.
Yet when I see how far Obama’s ratings have plummeted since he took office, it also tells me that he probably is, to some degree, grappling with the same predicament that often dogs other pioneering blacks: Having to live up to expectations of magic from people who often tolerate mediocrity in their white counterparts.
In a way, I can see how this is happening.
No doubt, Obama is a transformative figure. In the days before his historic win, thousands came to hear him as if they were going to the Sermon on the Mount. With the country on the verge of economic collapse and fighting two wars, people needed someone who they could believe in and, more than that, could make them believe in themselves again.
But it seems that while Obama’s charisma helped him as a candidate, it has, in some ways, hurt him as president.
On the one hand, you have racists and wingnuts who continue to be bent on vilifying his articulateness and his ideas as trickery; as a means of cowing gullible Americans as he marches the country toward … socialism.
They’re nothing without a bogeyman.
But on the other hand, you have people who believe that Obama ought to be able to deliver policy changes as easily as he delivered the speeches that mesmerized them. Many of those folks say they’re now disillusioned. After only 10 months.
They need to get a grip.
First of all, Obama has begun to deliver on much of what he promised. If people could just get past their unrealism and past the hate-spewing talkers and the hype and spin that masquerades as news these days, they’d see that.
Last week, for example, the president went to Arcadia, Fla., where Florida Power and Light opened its solar energy center. Obama was there to tout the smart grid technology that made it possible, as well as the jobs that it would create and the energy that it would save.
He also announced that his administration is investing $3.4 billion in smart grid technology.
Now, if that’s not an idea that bolsters Obama as an innovative leader, I don’t know what is. I mean, we know that America needs energy independence and clean energy.
And we damn sure need jobs.
So, if Obama is supporting efforts that give us all three, then I don’t see how that can be anything but transformative.
Besides sowing the seeds for a new, green economy, Obama has also accomplished many other things. His actions stabilized the U.S. economy and staved off another Great Depression. Unemployment continues to be high, but it’s obvious that Obama has an eye on the future by understanding that many of the old jobs won’t be coming back – and preparing the country for that.
He also made one huge, status-quo busting change: He appointed the first Latina Supreme Court justice.
Now, there’s no doubt that Obama has made missteps. I, for one, believe that he should have written his own health care bill. His popularity, while lower than it was in June, is still higher than Congress’.
Still, he’s put this country closer to health care reform than any other president has. Yet, even having done those things in such a short time, he still isn’t spared the unrealistic expectations of people .....
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Who do you think is already paying for the schools, Boys Clubs, benefits etc.? "THE RICH"..think about it: Is the guy making $20k in the line to receive the benefit the one that's paying for it? Of course, not.
by
VoiceofReason
November 11, 2009, 10:46 pm
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For the rich, do you really need 100M and give to the needy 20K. Fund the schools in your old neighborhood, fund Boys and Girls Clubs and Girls Inc Foundations. Get involve, because you cannot take the money with you in the grave. Millionaires make a group effort, if each of those mega churches fund 10 mil, and each rapper, pop, and rock singer fund 2-10 mil our neigborhood will be well funded
by
Abernad
November 11, 2009, 9:06 pm
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Stop looking for the easy dollar, stop killing your neighbor, stop neglecting your children, stop being uneducated, stop looking for drugs and the drink for help,stop having unprotected sex, and start praying.
by
Abernad
November 11, 2009, 9:05 pm
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Obama's timeline cannot bring the country at a halt. Read your Bible, and look at our future. There is going to be a lot of struggles do to greed, selfishness, laziness, hate, cruelity, and most of all no faith in the man upstairs. Get it together, start you own businesses (legitimate ones), live within your means even if you have millions, volunteer, and give to the poor.
by
Abernad
November 11, 2009, 9:04 pm
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Most black folks see the progress being made. The wingnuts that are laying the blame for all of Bush's laissez-faire leadership are happy that they have a target so that they can make MILLIONS off of their stupid wingnut listeners. The more garbage they can spout, the more money they can make. BHO is like Tiger Woods to these guys. They did alright before BHO, but now they're really raking in the dough. Health care just passed in the House after ten months. Senate is up next. That happened in ten months. BHO will be on the wall as one of the great prez's after his 2 terms are up.
by
Dbeasley488
November 9, 2009, 2:17 pm
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While President Barack Obama’s charisma has helped him as a candidate, it has, in some ways, hurt him as president. (AP)
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