Al Sharpton: Obama's Go-To Black Leader

[garbon]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/13462_alsharptonobamasgotoblackleader

The president's extraordinary embrace of Al Sharpton last week has as much to do with his rejection of Jesse Jackson, Cornel West and Tavis Smiley as it does with the once-embattled reverend.

President Obama's extraordinary embrace of Reverend Al Sharpton last week has as much to do with the president's antipathy for three other black leaders—Jesse Jackson, Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley—as it does with any genuine White House enthusiasm for the controversial New York preacher. Unlike Sharpton, who actually sat in the front row at Obama's December announcement of the deal to extend the Bush tax cuts, Jackson, West and Smiley have criticized the president's centrist tilt, alienating themselves from the administration.

Obama stayed so far away from Sharpton during the 2008 campaign that Sharpton, with Obama's blessing, never even endorsed him. Yet not only did Obama just become the first president ever to appear at the annual conference of Sharpton's National Action Network, ten top Obama aides, including six cabinet members, Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod, spoke at various sessions of the four-day event. It was a "Yes Al Can" celebration.

This "enemy-of-my-enemy" alliance moved to the front burner more than a year ago, when Sharpton declared, in an interview with the New York Times, that Obama was smart "not to ballyhoo a black agenda." Smiley fired back, saying it was "difficult" for Sharpton "to be the water carrier for the White House and, at the same time, trying to be the titular head, as it were, for Black America." He argued that Sharpton was "inside the White House trying to help the president push his agenda out" rather than pressuring Obama to adopt an agenda for blacks disproportionately hurt by the great recession.

"Sharpton is wrong to provide cover to Obama given the level of Black suffering and misery," said Dr. Cornel West.

Since then, Smiley and West have continued to use their once-a-week national radio show to criticize the White House. "The President knows his base in black America is shaky," Smiley charged on his radio show last week. "You can't play that history card more than one time." Blasting the Sharpton/Obama powwow, West said "Sharpton is wrong to provide cover to Obama given the level of Black suffering and misery."

Until recently West, the Princeton religion professor, was an honored guest at Sharpton events. Now they are locked in a public feud. Appearing with Sharpton this week on MSNBC, West said he worried that Sharpton "could be easily manipulated" into simply fronting for the White House. Sharpton responded with attacks on "ivory tower" and "ivy league" critics of the president, who blame Obama for failings of the congressional leadership. Last year, Sharpton refused to attend summit about a black agenda in Chicago in March 2010, hosted by West,Smiley and Rev. Jesse Jackson and accused Smiley of "buck dancing for Bill Clinton" during the Clinton era.

The tensions between Obama and Rev. Jesse Jackson, the other key player is this dispute, are long-standing, rooted in Illinois and Chicago politics. But they got worse after an open mike caught Jackson saying, during the 2008 campaign, that Obama "was talking down to black folks" and threatening to "cut his nuts out." Jackson participated in the Smiley/West black agenda conference last year and has also appeared on Smiley's public television show deriding Obama over Afghanistan and domestic priorities.

By taking on these critics, Sharpton has become Obama's go-to black leader, dispatched as a surrogate to several 2010 swing states by the Democratic National Committee, and ostensibly getting ready for a similar role in the 2012 race. Obama appears unconcerned about the ways Republican operatives used Sharpton in television commercials to taint Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004.

The White House also appears untroubled by the fact that Sharpton has a long history of undermining New York Democrats, from David Dinkins to Mario Cuomo to Mark Green to Bob Abrams. He backed City Councilman Charles Barron, who was running on the ticket of the Freedom Party, against Democrat Andrew Cuomo –who did not appear at the Sharpton confab. Ironically, Sharpton for years has had an arrangement with New York mayor Mike Bloomberg similar to the one he now has with Obama—never criticizing what is widely seen as the whitest management team in modern city history and enjoying access at City Hall.

West launched his most damning attack on Obama during last week's radio show, charging that the president is "more and more becoming a black mascot for Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet for corporate plutocrats." Slamming the president for agreeing to $30 billion in cuts shortly before it was revealed that the final tally was $38 billion, West said that Obama "has accepted the rightwing terrain."

"There's no fight, there's no spine, there's no serious passionate conviction."

I didn't know this had happened.

[Gups]

The report refers to "Obama's extraordinary embrace of Al Sharpton last week" but I can't work out what it's referring to. I can see that Sharpron has fallen out with some other black leaders and he's defending Obama against their attacks but what has Obama done to embrace Sharpton?

[derspiess]

The report refers to "Obama's extraordinary embrace of Al Sharpton last week" but I can't work out what it's referring to. I can see that Sharpron has fallen out with some other black leaders and he's defending Obama against their attacks but what has Obama done to embrace Sharpton?

I think they just had a big hug.

[Gups]

The report refers to "Obama's extraordinary embrace of Al Sharpton last week" but I can't work out what it's referring to. I can see that Sharpron has fallen out with some other black leaders and he's defending Obama against their attacks but what has Obama done to embrace Sharpton?

I think they just had a big hug.

Did they get big black boners?

[HVC]

Did they get big black boners?

If they did i'm sure Drakken watched it over and over again... in slow motion.

[Caliga]

I like Al Sharpton.  He's funny.   Jesse Jackson is just an annoying loudmouth.

[MadImmortalMan]

So, is he back to being the Magic Negro again?

[garbon]

The report refers to "Obama's extraordinary embrace of Al Sharpton last week" but I can't work out what it's referring to. I can see that Sharpron has fallen out with some other black leaders and he's defending Obama against their attacks but what has Obama done to embrace Sharpton?

Found it.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/bam_gives_sharp_salute_iBXg9i19BtE7UHq1qvBPSP

Obama pays tribute to Rev. Al at NYC gala

Looks like Rev. Al has friends in high places.

President Obama, embroiled in a furious battle over the federal budget, swept into New York last night for a star-studded celebration of the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network and gave the beaming civil-rights leader a rousing slap on the back.

"Some things have changed a lot since 1991. I told Rev. Al backstage he's getting skinnier than me," the president joked about his formerly portly pal during a keynote address celebrating the 20th anniversary of Sharpton's organization.

"But he hasn't lost his style," Obama said.

The president heartily embraced the once-embattled reverend with a handshake and a hug at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers in Midtown before addressing a crowd of about 600, including such luminaries as Bill Cosby, Magic Johnson, Stevie Wonder, David Dinkins, Spike Lee and Martin Luther King III.

Administration officials such as Attorney General Eric Holder, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Housing and Urban Development head Shaun Donovan were also on hand.

"The other thing that hasn't changed is the National Action Network's commitment to fight injustice and inequality here in New York City and across America," Obama gushed.

"That's not only a testament to Reverend Sharpton. It's a testament to all of you who are here tonight. I want to commend you for the work that you've done over the last two decades."

In Sharpton's remarks introducing the president, the reverend invoked the words of President Kennedy when he urged attendees to determine what they can do to help the administration.

After the event, Obama flew back to the capital for a critical budget meeting with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The decision to leave the White House and head to New York shows the importance Obama is putting on shoring up his African-American support.

Though polls say 90 percent of African-Americans back the president, his campaign wants to make sure they turn out at the polls on Election Day.

It also shows Obama is willing to overlook the reverend's controversial past, including Sharpton's role in the 1987 Tawana Brawley debacle in which he supported a teen who falsely accused six men, including cops, of raping her.

Some guests couldn't help but notice how Sharpton's image has evolved from tracksuit-wearing rabble-rouser to DC Beltway insider.

"Sharpton started in the outhouse. Now the White House comes to him," quipped one person in attendance, who marveled at how Sharpton and Obama yesterday were "joined at the hip."

Obama at times sounded like he was in full campaign mode. He made sure to touch on jobs, a major issue for black America.

"We're making progress," he said. "But we're not there yet. So long as there are Americans who cannot find work, I will be fighting for jobs," the president said.

"That's the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep at night.

"Everybody is in this together."

Yesterday, African-American leaders at the event said they appreciated his gesture.

"Now that Obama's made the announcement to run for re-election, I think it's significant that he is here," said Shirley Neal, executive VP of The Africa Channel.

"I think there are a lot of powerful supporters here. This is a good opportunity to speak directly to them," she said.

[garbon]

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-04-07/news/29412480_1_national-action-network-barack-obama-blacks-return

Barack Obama's got a hex on him - he keeps palling around with race men. His 2008 presidential race almost got derailed because of friendship with the Rev. Jeremiah ("God Damn America") Wright and now, as he starts his bid for reelection, he's embracing America's biggest race huckster south of Louis Farrakhan, the Rev. Al Sharpton.

It was bad enough when President Obama created a racial flap by siding with Harvard's Prof. Henry (Skip) Gates, agreeing without knowing the facts that his pal was a victim of a white police officer's racial insensitivity. This week Obama is actually kissing the ring of Sharpton, who cut his teeth on cop-bashing in a city that was, in large part thanks to Sharpton, racially divided.

Make no mistake: By making the appearance, Obama is giving weight to Sharpton's claim on the mantle of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This is the anniversary week of King's assassination and the de facto presidential appointment of Sharpton as America's black leader is as important to Sharpton as being in good standing with America's black voters is to Obama. "Win-win," as the saying goes.

Or, in the words of another black preacher - who sold prayer clothes and healing oils as his hustle - "You can't lose with the stuff [they] use."

But why would Obama place the presidential seal of approval on a National Action Network anniversary and thereby confer prestige and respectability on one so brazen and divisive on race matters? Though Obama repeatedly says he rejects race-based thinking, this is not a color-blind outlook. National Action Network is not a color-blind organization.

The answer, I suspect, is politics.

On the eve of his reelection, Obama needs a solid-black vote in 2012. But he knows that his disappointing policies - and reversals of campaign promises - have not brought any realities of change for the better to most black people's lives. Unemployment remains, for blacks at least, in double digits. So, rather than delivering a chicken in every pot, he seems to be relying on men like Sharpton to keep stirring up the cauldrons of racial pride as the best way of ensuring that blacks return to the polls to reelect America's first African-American President.

These are strange times. Our politicians are turning to preachers and our preachers are turning into politicians. It's an unholy alliance that exploits passions about race and reinforces condescending stereotypes of "black" leadership.

[Caliga]

I can't wait for the GOP to quote Obama from this meeting and show footage of it over and over and over and over again during the coming campaign.

[garbon]

I can't wait for the GOP to quote Obama from this meeting and show footage of it over and over and over and over again during the coming campaign.

That's the responsible reaction to a person who would support Al Sharpton or give him praise.

[Caliga]

It was so cute when Al ran for Superdude in 2004 and the commentators, as well as his primary opponents, actually pretended to take him seriously.

[Valmy]

I can't wait for the GOP to quote Obama from this meeting and show footage of it over and over and over and over again during the coming campaign.

That's the responsible reaction to a person who would support Al Sharpton or give him praise.

Yep.  This will come back to bite him. 

[derspiess]

It was so cute when Al ran for Superdude in 2004 and the commentators, as well as his primary opponents, actually pretended to take him seriously.

Yeah.  To actually see him be allowed take part in debates was a hoot.  I recall he did promise to find Osama bin Laden if elected-- too bad he didn't get a chance to do it

[garbon]

My mother on hearing word of this: No he did not. That is beyond gross. What is a matter with him that he wants to get elected again that bad?