Obama Does Not Address State Of The Black Union Meeting. Does This Hurt Him?

[Lincoln Republican]

Barack Obama, due to previous commitments in the campaign, did not address the State Of The Black Union meeting in New Orleans on Saturday.

Hillary Clinton did address this meeting.

Will Obama be hurt by this decision?

Please discuss.

[Lief 🗽]

The what now?

No, of course not.

[Alcon]

Looks like it made Reuters (or the AP, or whatever), so it will hurt.

Significantly?  I very, very, very much doubt it.

[Duke 🇺🇸]

No, the blacks will still vote for him in droves because he's one of them. It's probably impossible, at this point, for him to lose any support among the black community.

[Verily]

Looks like it made Reuters (or the AP, or whatever), so it will hurt.

Significantly?  I very, very, very much doubt it.

My impression is that Tavis has been hurt by it much more than Obama among the people who actually care (that is, the "black media" meant to cater primarily to black audiences).

[Alcon]

Looks like it made Reuters (or the AP, or whatever), so it will hurt.

Significantly?  I very, very, very much doubt it.

My impression is that Tavis has been hurt by it much more than Obama among the people who actually care (that is, the "black media" meant to cater primarily to black audiences).

You seem to know more about this than I do (I've never heard of it before), so could you elaborate some?  I know who Tavis Smiley is, but beyond that...I don't know why this would hurt him, what this whole thing is, etc.

[Verily]

Looks like it made Reuters (or the AP, or whatever), so it will hurt.

Significantly?  I very, very, very much doubt it.

My impression is that Tavis has been hurt by it much more than Obama among the people who actually care (that is, the "black media" meant to cater primarily to black audiences).

You seem to know more about this than I do (I've never heard of it before), so could you elaborate some?  I know who Tavis Smiley is, but beyond that...I don't know why this would hurt him, what this whole thing is, etc.

Tavis is the organizer of the "State of the Black Union", among other things. He's also a big Clinton shill; he was the one asking if Obama was "black enough", and praising Clinton for being "black enough", this time last year.

Anyway, I can't find the original article I read that was even more scathing towards Tavis, but here's one: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/smileysobu215

[Verily]

Here's something else: http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/11/clinton-obama-navigating-the-water-of-black-politics/

[Alcon]

Thanks.

[Stranger in a strange land]

I'd never heard of the "State of the Black Union" until this year. I think Obama has helped himself greatly by not campaigning on black issues because it makes it much more difficult for Republicans or Hillary to paint him as some type of radical black power activist.

[NHPolitico]

Definitely the smart thing to do.  Obama is running as beyond partisanship and beyond race, as a guy who will be the President of the entire Union, not the Black Union.  Going to this event would be Obama marginalizing himself as another niche candidate like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.  Black voters don't really care one whit about this event, and they certainly won't care in November.  Pandering to so called "black leaders" will hurt him severely in TX, OH, and PA. He is focusing on that, and will deal with any negative reaction to this later on down the road.

[Padfoot]

Even if this does end up hurting him among black voters, going to this event would have hurt him more among whites and independents.  If he's going to continue being the race transcending candidate he has to avoid these types of uber-racial forums.  A poorly disguised racial attack was recently printed in a letter to the editor in the Columbus Dispatch.  The author was "disturbed" (his word not mine) by the website of Obama's church.  The implication was that belonging to a Christian church which celebrates African heritage somehow made Obama a Muslim.  For anyone with a brain it was obviously that this person was a racist of the worst kind and several responses to the letter were printed in the days afterward.  However, the fact remains that there are people like this out there who will jump at any chance they get to make Obama more ethnically unappealing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

More likely to help him actually </cynic>