PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay in Baltimore.
As the American presidential elections heat up as we get closer to September, President Obama clearly leads amongst African Americans in polling, but he needs African Americans to actually go to the polls, not just answer phone calls about how they’re going to vote. The question is: has he done enough for African Americans and not just African Americans? Has his administration fulfilled enough of the promises he made to poor people, working people across the country, enough that they will actually go and vote?Now joining us to talk about all of this is Julianne Malveaux. She’s former president of Bennett College for women. She’s an economist, an author, and a commentator, and her latest book is Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History. Thanks for joining us, Julianne.DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX, ECONOMIST, PRESIDENT EMERITA OF BENNETT COLLEGE FOR WOMEN: Good to be with you [unintel.]
JAY: And I should say Julianne’s joining us from Washington. So what do you make of my question? You know, it’s easy enough, when somebody phones you, to say, who do you like, who are you going to vote for, who has likability. But that’s not the same thing as being inspired enough to actually go down and vote. How do you think this might play out?
MALVEAUX: Oh, I think in the next two months the Obama challenge is really to mobilize the base. There are a lot of people who were very excited in 2008 because, of course, 2008 was history. We need people to get out in the same numbers.And there are a lot of people who are somewhat discouraged. They didn’t, in their minds, get enough. But we have to remember President Obama inherited—in other words, he inherited an economy that was going [downhill], and to the best of his ability, he shored it up. But for two years he was able, with a Democratic Congress and Senate, to do some things. And in the last two years he’s really had major Republican opposition. Mitt Romney has said that the president doesn’t know how to create jobs. But he has a JOBS Act that’s sitting on the table that the Republicans just won’t move.However, those nuances don’t mean very much to someone who doesn’t have a job, to college graduates who can’t find jobs. And so, basically, the base has to be mobilized both by talking about what President Obama has done—and I think he’s not done enough of that, his team has not done enough to talk about accomplishments. But also, although it’s a little bit negative, we have to remind people of what the alternatives are. I mean, Romney–Ryan is not an alternative to Obama unless you want to give up an awful lot. read more…
