What Base?

Bob Herbert: "... black voters ... have been hammered disproportionately by the recession and largely taken for granted by the Democratic Party.... The idea that we had moved into some kind of postracial era was always a ridiculous notion.... What has taken a toll is the perception that the president has consistently seemed more concerned about the needs and interests of those who are already well off, who are hostile to policies that would help working people and ethnic minorities, and who in many cases would like nothing better than to see Mr. Obama fail."

The Constant Weader comments:

Two points. First, this from Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times, reporting on President Obama's CNBC townhall meeting of yesterday that was supposed to be about "Investing in America":

During the Q&A, "an African-American woman who identified herself as a chief financial officer, a mother and a military veteran," said to the President, "I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for. I've been told that I voted for a man who was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class and I’m waiting sir, I'm waiting. I still don’t feel it yet."

Here's the exchange:

That lady speaks for me, & for millions of others, of every racial stripe. I don't know why Stolberg even mentioned the questioner's race, because the woman's complaint had nothing to do with race. But her race does speak to Herbert's point -- that black Americans aren't getting from the President what they had hoped for. Neither am I, and I'm white.

During the 2008 primary campaign, I had a discussion with some well-meaning white Democrats who appeared to favor Hillary Clinton because she was white. I was an Obama supporter, & I promised them that if Barack Obama became President, within weeks white people would be thinking of him as "the President," not as "the black President." I was wrong about that, because I hadn't counted on Rush Limbaugh & Newt Gingrich & Glenn Beck & all the other right-wing entertainers thinking up every way they could to keep reminding people Mr. Obama is black: "Imam Obama," "Kenyan anti-colonial," "racist."

But. When I'm not railing against the Rush/Newt/Glenn coterie, when I am able to push them to the back of the bus, as it were, I see Mr. Obama as "the President," & I applaud or criticize his policies & remarks on their merits, not within any racial context. I'm 65 years old, I grew up in the segregated South, & I didn't know any black people till I went to college (in the North). So yes, as a child, I did notice people's skin color. Frankly, now I don't, & I have to think about it when somebody asks the race of a person. Race, to me, is not a defining characteristic. I realize I would likely not have the luxury of that indifference were I not white.

Even better, I know plenty of people, including my own children, who are a generation (or more) younger than I for whom race was never definitive. They just don't think about it. So I think millions & millions of Americans do live in post-racial America. That there are still people on the right who will exploit racism, like the execrable Andrew Breitbart who published the heavily-edited Shirley Sherrod tape, & that there are still people who will fall for it, like the President himself, is a filthy stain on our country. It's true the media keep these racist creeps in a place of prominence, but that is because it is the business of the news media to expose evil.

Racial bigots are now their own minority, & their numbers continue to dwindle, which, of course, is one reason the ragtag remainder are squawking so loudly. The rest of us moved on some while back.

Karen Garcia "just can't relate":

Maybe the reason Obama has such trouble firing up his original base is that most of us just can't relate to these black-tie, thousands-of- dollars-a-plate fundraising affairs. We watch TV clips of the galas, and shrug, and think "there is no way I would ever get invited to THIS shindig."

It just struck a jarring note that the impeccably dressed president would urge the Black Caucus to head on back to the barber shops and beauty parlors to gin up the support of black voters. It occurred to me that the President doesn't have a clue about how most black people, white people, any kind of people, actually live these days. I think he got the hair care locales idea from some political ad from the 70s, depicting regular folks just hanging out. Either that, or his speechwriters have been watching too many reruns of "Roseanne" and "The King of Queens".

I don't know about you, but I can't really afford to go to the beauty parlor for a shampoo and a haircut. Hell, I can barely afford a bottle of shampoo. Any politician looking for me at the local salon will be out of luck. You might find me in my kitchen with a pair of shears trimming my bangs, though.

And then I read about the the fundraiser in tony Greenwich, CT the other night at a private home for a very exclusive and very rich bunch of limousine Democrats. I heard that the President dissed the crazy lefties again for just not letting that public option thing go. If a video of that particular speech exists, I wouldn't watch it - I am already disgusted enough.

So, the President is worried about reinvigorating the base. And I ask - what base?

The Commentariat -- September 21

The Fall of Summers. It is fitting that September 21 marks the end of Summers. -- Karen Garcia

Buh-Bye, Larry. AP: "President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, plans to leave the White House at the end of the year, a move that comes as the administration struggles to show an anxious public it's making progress on the economy." CW: I assume that Julie Pace, the AP reporter on this story, added the last line for ironical impact: "... but [Summers] looks forward to returning to Harvard to teach and write about the economic fundamentals of job creation." The New York Times has the full official announcement.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Obama’s Wars,” by the journalist Bob Woodward, depicts an administration deeply torn over the war in Afghanistan even as the president agreed to triple troop levels there amid suspicion that he was being boxed in by the military. Mr. Obama’s top White House adviser on Afghanistan and his special envoy for the region are described as believing the strategy will not work." Update: Washington Post story by Steve Luxenberg here. ...

... Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times reviews Woodward's book.

CW: when I need a Nobel Laureate to back up my observations, Paul Krugman is apt to come through, as he does here: "the [Obama] administration seems to go out of its way to alienate its supporters." ...

... Shahien Nasiripour of the Huffington Post has the money quote on Jacob Lew's Senate committee testimony to which Krugman refers. Oh, and Nasiripour reminds us that Lew is "a former Citigroup executive." ...

... Not a Whole Lot of Shakin' up Going on. Alas, Andrew Leonard of Salon probably has it right on the End of Summers: "Obama replaced Romer with his longtime advisor, Austan Goolsbee, ensuring near perfect continuity with his original economic team. He replaced Orszag with former Clinton budget director Jacob Lew -- the very antithesis of a shakeup." ...

... Robert Reich: "After three decades of flat wages during which almost all the gains of growth have gone to the very top, the middle class no longer has the buying power to keep the economy going. It can’t send more spouses into paid work, can’t work more hours, can’t borrow any more. All the coping mechanisms are exhausted."

Republican strategist Mark McKinnon in the Daily Beast: President Obama has a "Velma Hart problem." Here's Hart on CNN:

Mark Thompson of Time: "... military paychecks were the key engine of income growth for many of the cities that saw their average pay grow the fastest last year. In fact, the 11 cities with the fastest income growth all boast major military installations that help drive their local economies.... What does it mean when the nation's cities with the fastest-growing payrolls are dedicated to fighting wars instead of cancer, building brigades instead of bridges, and training combat engineers instead of computer engineers?"

Lori Montgomery of the Washington Post: "Official and independent budget estimates show that letting tax rates spring back to pre-Bush levels for all taxpayers would bring the country within striking distance of meeting President Obama's goal of balancing the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015."

Jim Rutenberg & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: President Bill Clinton "... has emerged as one of the most important defenders of President Obama’s Congressional majorities. Some candidates are asking for his help on the campaign trail, rather than the president’s. Even though Mr. Clinton insisted on Monday that he was only 'peripherally and fleetingly' back in politics, he has been headlining rallies and fund-raisers across the country to buck up the depressed party faithful."

Ben Smith & Keach Hagey of Politico: the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert "dueling" marches October 30 are a "practical" joke that may energize young voters.

Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook she should be prosecuted. Ms. O'Donnell has spent years embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses.... Thieves belong in jail not the United States Senate. -- Melanie Sloan, CREW director

Andy Barr of Politico: "The campaign watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a pair of complaints with the Federal Election Commission Monday accusing [Christine] O'Donnell of using more than $20,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses."

Flash Cookies. Tanzina Vega of the New York Times: "Since July, at least five class-action lawsuits filed in California have accused media companies like the Fox Entertainment Group and NBC Universal, and technology companies like Specific Media and Quantcast of surreptitiously using Flash cookies. More filings are expected as early as this week. The suits contend that the companies collected information on the Web sites that users visited and from the videos they watched, even though the users had set their Web browser privacy settings to reject cookies that could track them."

President Obama on CNBC's "Investing in America": Full Session:

New York Times: "It was billed as 'Investing In America,' a live televised conversation between President Obama and American workers, students, business people and retirees on the state of the economy, a kind of Wall Street to Main Street reality check. But it sounded like a therapy session for disillusioned Obama supporters." AND here's a page of CNBC links about the town hall meeting.