Jackson: Obama must tend to black vote
By: James Hohmann
October 27, 2010 05:38 PM EDT
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The Rev. Jesse Jackson thinks President Barack Obama could increase black turnout next week, and thus limit Democratic losses, by promising a second economic stimulus that includes funding for urban renewal.
The civil rights leader faults the Democratic Party for waiting too late to advertise in key races and laments the president’s failure to better sell his accomplishments. But he said there might still be time to stop Republicans from winning control of the House.
“The black vote, which is bigger than the tea party vote, has been lying dormant,” he said in an interview Wednesday with POLITICO. “I argue that there may be more coffee in the pot than tea in the cup. If that vote comes alive in critical states, you can make a difference. … If people vote their interests and not their fears, then we will keep it.”
Record black turnout provided a key advantage for congressional Democrats in 2008, but a POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground poll released Monday strongly suggested that many African Americans who turned out for the first time to elect Obama two years ago will stay home. “In some places, the DNC has started advertising too late. Sometimes, not at all,” Jackson said. “Another thing is that the administration has not done a good job at telling its story.”
“We’ve watered the leaves,” he added. “The banks got bailed out. The insurance companies got protected with (no) public option … The generals got bailed out with the Afghan plan. The urban roots have not yet been watered. Water on roots make flowers blossom. But there’s still so much confidence in the president. His direct appeal can have an impact. If that vote does accept the appeal and is promised in the second stimulus it too will be bailed out, you could get a higher-than-predicted turnout.”
Jackson still speaks proudly of how Democrats averted a global economic meltdown and passed health care reform, but he says the party must more boldly fire up the African-American base. “At least there is a story to be told,” he said. “I think that, maybe, more people must be convened to help tell that story because the focus is on the president and Palin and the tea party, but the real action is on the ground. I think much of what has come down has been very good, but it has not yet gained traction.”
He called on the White House to deploy “more surrogates who are able to capture people’s attention and get the message out.”
Obama has ramped up outreach to African-Americans this fall. He’s given interviews to journalists and made campaign stops aimed at the constituency. But he’s also had high-profile disagreements with the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP over education, employment and housing over the last year.
Stimulus has become a bad word, and administration officials have avoided using it. They’ve sought to stoke economic recovery with smaller packages, mindful of the political fallout after Democrats passed a $787 billion stimulus in February 2009. It seems highly unlikely Obama would make such a call in the next few days.
Jackson's group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, has been trying to galvanize the African-American community. They’ve taken voters to the polls for early voting, and Jackson recorded a robocall message, warning voters in the Chicago area that they should vote Democrat to block Republican efforts to repeal the 14th Amendment. “So we work and we hope,” he said. “We are not suffering from a lack of effort.”
Virtually all blacks supported the Democrat over the Republican on the generic ballot in POLITICO’s new poll, but only 47 percent said they’re “extremely likely” to vote. That compares to 73 percent of white voters, a majority of whom are backing the Republican this year.
Jackson invokes the example of 1986 to argue that African-Americans could be decisive if they get more engaged. He says that about two million new African-American voters registered Democrat during the 1984 election, and he attributes the Democratic takeover of the Senate in 1986 to their robust presence.
“We won North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and California — where Dems didn’t expect to win that year — because of the black vote,” he said.
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Good job Jesse - Blacks are voting 95% for the dems anyway so why bother?
