PrintSeptember 7, 2010
The Most Profound Victims of the Obama Hoax
The Fourth Great Awakening in American history continues to expand among those who drank the Obama Campaign Kool-Aid. Statistically, the most zealous believers in hope and change are the most profound victims of the Obama Hoax -- poor, young, unemployed blacks.
"A sense of disappointment, bordering on betrayal, has been growing across the country, especially in moderate states like Indiana, where people now openly say they didn't quite understand the President they voted for in 2008." TIME magazine, "How Barack Obama Became Mr. Unpopular."
- Michael Scherer, September 3, 2010
TIME magazine shilled for Senator Obama during the election campaign. Displaying near-religious fervor, the cover of TIME was a repetitive hymn for Obama the Candidate. But now, a TIME writer reports on a widespread national "sense of disappointment" with Obama the President.
TIME wasn't alone in mixing the Obama Kool-Aid for public consumption.
On September 4, 2008, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, a guest on "CNN's Larry King Live" show, called Candidate Obama "a new kind of intelligence."
He's a new kind of intelligence. He's young and bright. He has a different attitude toward the world, a more cosmopolitan attitude. He's all the things we need. Most of all, those 80 percent of American people are right. We need change.
On Sunday, October 19, 2008, retired General Colin Powell, as a guest on "NBC's Meet the Press," endorsed Candidate Obama, calling him a "transformational figure" who would "electrify the world."
And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities -- and you have to take that into account -- as well as his substance -- he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president.
Today, the only Cuomo in the news is Mario's son, Andrew, a candidate for the Governorship of New York now that the current black governor has been forced to the sidelines. And today, Colin Powell's name shows up on the playbill for a motivational speakers' troupe that features former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the man who ran the most bizarre presidential campaign in recent American political history.
The consequences to Cuomo and Powell for helping mix the Kool-Aid for the Obama Hoax are...none.
As for those whom White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called the "professional left," they, too, are suffering through their own Great Awakening. They expected an even more spirited push toward a comprehensive socialistic agenda. But they'll survive. They may even flourish if Hillary challenges Barack for the 2012 nomination and gives them a new champion to satisfy their thirst for more big-government Kool-Aid.
The professional and semi-professional pols, the professional Left, the journalists who shamelessly shilled for the first post-partisan, post-racial candidate...all their lives go on pretty much as before. They rock 'n' roll on. The Obama Hoax hasn't been cruel to them. For some, it's been their life's blood. Their raison d'être. They're not victims of the Hoax; they were among its enablers. And now some are pretending to be its impartial revealers. But that won't play.
The most profound victims are poor, young, unemployed blacks who want jobs. They're suffering the most from Obama's economic policies, designed more to disembowel the U.S. economy than restore it. They got change, but not the hope they believed went with it.
Michael Scherer's TIME article features Indiana voters who supported Obama: a laid-off payroll administrator with 23 years at an RV plant, a South Bend orthopedic surgeon who's unhappy with ObamaCare, a disaffected "Democratic strategist" working on the midterm elections. The tone of the TIME article leads one to expect there'd be an 800 number given to donate to the individual recovery funds of the featured disaffected Obama supporters.
But what about the poor, young blacks who reached for the Kool-Aid enthusiastically, clasping its cup with both hands, gulping down the elixir of hope and change hard and fast? What's become of them? How are their new Green Jobs working out? Where are the success stories featuring their newfound careers in those shovel-ready projects that awaited only passage of the stimulus bill? A shovel was at work, all right, but it wasn't throwing earth dirt.
Summer job opportunities for all youth have declined. Teen unemployment is at an all-time high at 26.1% in July. But for those voters who most overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama, the employment figures are particularly dismal.
Unemployment among Black teens ages 16 to 19 -- while "extremely volatile from month to month," states the [August 2010, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics] report -- has been steadily increasing throughout the summer. In July, their jobless rate stood at 40.6 percent, up from 39.9 percent in June and 38 percent in May, compared with white rates of 28.7 percent (July), 23.2 percent (June) and 24.4 percent (May).Teens by gender: In July, both Black men and women saw a slight increase in joblessness. Unemployment for Black male teens remains the highest at 43.7 percent, up from 43.2 percent in June. Black female teen unemployment rose from 36.5 percent in June to 37.1 percent in July.
So what will become of the misguided confidence that poor, young blacks put in the Obama Hoax that promised the chalice of hope and change only to serve up the dregs of an economy trending toward negative GDP growth in early 2011? Will their Great Awakening, if it comes, lead to enlightenment, or to an even deeper cynicism?
