In what is likely to be a vicious battle to a close finish, both Presidential candidates turn to the traditional carrot-on-a-stick method of campaigning… pandering to a particular demographic with glittering promises. While Romney is delicately walking the balanced beam, hoping to win the hearts of the Tea Party fiscal conservatives without ostracizing the moderate voters, Obama has turned his attentions to pandering to America's black voter with a new Initiative, outlined in an Executive Order issued last Thursday.
Obama's official kick off of his Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans was in a speech to the Urban League the night before in New Orleans.
An administration official tells NBC News the order will create a new White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans that will “work across Federal agencies and with partners and communities nationwide to produce a more effective continuum of education programs for African American students.” The official added that the initiative would be housed in the Education Department, which will work with the Executive Office and other Cabinet agencies to identify practices that will improve African Americans’ achievement in schools and colleges. The administration official did not yet know how much funding the program would receive but said more information would be released Thursday when the president signs the executive order.But when election season hits, and enthusiasm is low, Obama no longer believes that America means "pulling together" and "every single person" should have the opportunity. Tis the season of pandering, and that means focusing special attentions of those of a particular race.
The president has previously received criticism from some black leaders for not doing enough to help the African American community as rates for school dropout and unemployment among African Americans continue to be higher than the national numbers.
For example, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the dropout rate for African American students ages 16 to 25 was 8 percent in 2010; by comparison, white students in that age range had a 5.1 percent dropout rate. Further, the unemployment rate for African Americans is 14.4 percent, significantly higher than the national average of 8.2 percent.
Last August, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) told a crowd of Congressional Black Caucus members in Detroit, “We want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he’s prepared to lead on. But our people are hurting and the unemployment rate is unconscionable.”
Obama has in the past responded to such criticism. In an interview on BET last September he answered a question about why he didn’t create more policies specifically targeted at African Americans: “That’s not how America works,” the president replied, “America works when all of us are pulling together and everybody is focused on making sure that every single person has opportunity.”
Prior to this, Obama has attempted to keep any actions that smack of Affirmative Action low profile. I.e. the lack of media focus and follow up on his March 2010 EO #13532, Promoting Excellence, Innovation, and Sustainability at Historicallly Black Colleges and Universities.
And how's that been working out?
Considering that the majority of black Americans can be safely counted in the pockets of the Democrats by tradition, one wonders why Obama feels it necessary to resort to more useless pandering and fake solutions. After all, this initiative is nothing more than feel good promises, advisory committees and the administration throwing money at studies and chit chat. But it does give the appearance of "doing" something, and provides handy fodder for demographic specific campaign stops.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
