Prometheus 6

Juan Wiliams put a lot of work into Obama's Color Line...so much that some of it may be salvageable.

But to say the least, it is very odd that black voters are split over Mr. Obama’s strong and realistic effort to reach where no black candidate has gone before. Their reaction looks less like post-racial political idealism than the latest in self-defeating black politics.

Just not this part.

He builds his case for this by drawing on the Pew Push Poll, and confounding even that.

Fifty percent of black Americans say Mr. Obama shares their values, according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. But that still leaves another half who dismiss him as having only “some” or “not much/not at all” in common with the values of black Americans.

First of all, he harps on the undefined “values” question Pew asked. If this type of question had been asked in a poll on presidential candidates, the polling organization would be raked over the coals for it. Secondly, because he's looking for reasons to split the lower economic classes out of the mix, he pays no attention to the fact that only 11% of Black folks say he shares those undefined values 'not much/not at all.'

But what do you get when you define those values?

"What we think is moral is not only the defense of marriage, but we also think equal education is a moral issue. We think discrimination is immoral."

Stephen Peagler, 27, said he is a faithful churchgoer who believes that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. But, he said, when it comes to voting, he's looking for a candidate who will address issues that are more relevant in his everyday life. And Democrats are more likely to deal with the high incarceration rates of black men and underperforming inner-city schools, he said.

Only 5 percent of blacks in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll called abortion or moral or family-values issues their top concerns for the upcoming presidential election. By contrast, more than four in 10 highlighted the war in Iraq, 38 percent health care and 33 percent the economy and jobs.

"Devout black churchgoers' issue set is pretty much the same as other African Americans, which is big on economic issues, health care and dealing with poverty and education," said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "When African Americans say they are conservative, it doesn't mean they are politically conservative. It means that they are conservative in terms of their personal behavior."

The evangelical church's racial split turns on that point. The black evangelical church developed a penchant for social justice and progressive politics as part of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. White fundamentalists steered clear and after the passage of Roe v. Wade made fighting legalized abortion their signature political issue.

"One of the misnomers that we labor under is the line of demarcation between social issues and moral issues," Clarke said. "For us, they are almost one and the same."

You find the most conservative Black folks in the nation pursue EXACTLY THE SAME ISSUES as every other Black person I know.

Juan Williams also says

There is a widening split over values inside black America.

Yet the Pew Push Poll said

The proportion of African Americans saying that black and white values are converging did not change significantly between 1986 and 2007, while the number seeing a divergence of values grew modestly (6 percentage points).

The number grew because the population grew...but the proportion is the same. Which means Mr. Williams can't even get his own custom-provided propaganda straight. Can't salvage that part either. So what does he do?

Overall, only 29 percent of people of all colors say Mr. Obama reflects black values.

Shift from discussing Black people to “all colors” people. Meanwhile, we've seen above Black folks are all after the same thing, differing only in approach. The Pew poll says 50% of Black people say he shares most of their undefined values. White people's responses are what skewed the “all colors” response...which means white people have no idea what Black people's values are.

Unless Mr. Williams wants to suggest it's Black people who have no idea what Black people's values are. He couldn't be THAT stupid and arrogant. Can he?

Among the general public, Obama is seen as sharing the values and interests of black people in this country, although only 29% say that he shares those values and interests “a lot.” Blacks themselves are the most likely to see a commonality but only half (50%) of those offering a judgment see a strong sharing of values and interests.

Maybe.

See, when you ask “Now thinking about people’s VALUES. By values I mean things that people view as important, or their general way of thinking,” you're going to get answers from the lower economic classes like, “employment, education, police protection without abuse.” How many folks making $50K have those issues (though the white guy in Utah that got the shit tazed out of him now lists police protection without abuse as a high priority, maybe he shouldn't have tried walking away with his hands in his pocket...a brother would have been shot!). A 50% alignment between an upper economic class brother like Sen. Obama and, say, me is astounding. He's doing far better than Mr. Williams implies.

Have we gotten to the salvageable part yet?

No.

But to say the least, it is very odd that black voters are split over Mr. Obama’s strong and realistic effort to reach where no black candidate has gone before. Their reaction looks less like post-racial political idealism than the latest in self-defeating black politics.

Mr. Obama’s success is creating anxiety, uncertainty and more than a little jealousy among older black politicians. Black political and community activists still rooted in the politics of the 1960s civil rights movement are suspicious about why so many white people find this black man so acceptable.

Not when he goes from “black voters” to “older black politicians without batting an eye. If he still had a connection to the Black constituencies, he'd see we're all tired of promises with no results so we're all double-checking all politicians. Check out our response to the CBCI/Fox News debate. Check the youth response to the NAACP, Al Sharpton...the list goes on.

Mr. Obama’s biography and rhetoric have led to mean-spirited questions about whether he is “black enough,” whether he is “acting like he’s white,” as a South Carolina newspaper reported Jesse Jackson said of him.

And I am too tired of guys like him implying it's Black folks asking that question (and no one has presented tape or transcript of Rev. Jackson saying that...though I believe he might have asked if Obama would respond as a white politician would. And yes that's a different question).

You know what? There's actually nothing salvageable here. Forget I said anything about that, okay?