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Locked in a tough re-election battle with Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama aimed to energize his core supporters – African American voters – by delivering a rousing speech and unveiling a new executive order at the Urban League’s annual convention in New Orleans Wednesday night.
The president told the largely African American crowd of roughly 3,700 people that the executive order will seek to improve educational achievement for African Americans at all levels “so every child has greater access to a complete and competitive education from the time they’re born to the time, all through the time they get a career” the president said to cheers.
An administration official tells NBC News the order will create a new White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African-Americans that will “work across Federal agencies and with partners and communities nationwide to produce a more effective continuum of education programs for African American students.”
President Obama addresses the National Urban League in New Orleans, La., on Wednesday. "If you still believe in me ... stand with me," he said.
The official added that the initiative would be housed in the Education Department, which will work with the Executive Office and other Cabinet agencies to identify practices that will improve African Americans’ achievement in schools and colleges. The administration official did not yet know how much funding the program would receive but said more information would be released Thursday when the president signs the executive order.
The president has previously received criticism from some black leaders for not doing enough to help the African American community as rates for school dropout and unemployment among African Americans continue to be higher than the national numbers.
For example, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, the dropout rate for African American students ages 16 to 25 was 8 percent in 2010; by comparison, white students in that age range had a 5.1 percent dropout rate. Further, the unemployment rate for African Americans is 14.4 percent, significantly higher than the national average of 8.2 percent.
Last August, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) told a crowd of Congressional Black Caucus members in Detroit, “We want to give the president every opportunity to show what he can do and what he’s prepared to lead on. But our people are hurting and the unemployment rate is unconscionable.”
Obama has in the past responded to such criticism. In an interview on BET last September he answered a question about why he didn’t create more policies specifically targeted at African Americans: “That’s not how America works,” the president replied, “America works when all of us are pulling together and everybody is focused on making sure that every single person has opportunity.”
When asked if this latest executive order is timed to mobilize African American voters ahead of the election, one White House official said it is “one more step along a path that the president has been walking.” The official cited the fact that the president enacted the Race to the Top initiative and new flexibility on No Child Left Behind, actions aimed at improving educational opportunities for all students including minorities, according to the Official.
On Tuesday, the president admitted there was still a lot more work and asked the Urban League crowd for their continued support: “If we don’t keep fighting for better jobs and a better future, who will? That’s our challenge. We don’t quit.”
From the Romney camp, spokeswoman Tara Wall responded to the speech, saying, "As black Americans, we all take pride in Barack Obama's historic election - but unfortunately his performance as president has not matched that enthusiasm."
Exit polls show that 95 percent of African American voters supported president Obama in 2008. Analysts believe he will need them to turn out in similarly large numbers if he hopes to win key swing states such as Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina.
The president wrapped up his remarks with a familiar plea for voters to turnout in November; “I still believe in you and if you still believe in me I ask you stand with me. March with me. Fight with me and … I promise we will finish what we started, turn this economy around, seize our future and remind the world why the United States of America is the greatest nation on earth.”
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Pat, in your eyes is there any comment opposing this campaign activity not going to be considered racism? If the shoe was on the other foot what would your response be? Meaning, a white president campaigning or promising something to there own race.
"Exit polls show that 95 percent of African American voters supported president Obama in 2008. Analysts believe he will need them to turn out in similarly large numbers if he hopes to win key swing states such as Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina."
The fact show that African Americans are worse off under Obama than under Bush.
So after 3.5 years of ignoring the African American issues, Obama is now addressing one of them. This must be the transparency Obama talked about in his first campaign. For this example is so transparent, its out right sinful and an insult to the African American community..
Does he really believe that there are no poor White kids that are having problems with school? The drop out rate among Hispanics is greater than Blacks even. This executive order is a blatant racist act and he should be impeached for it - but of course the Dems in the Senate would never convict.
What a racist, pandering pig he is!!! And he'll get the leeches who want something extra just because, and their mamas and daddies, and their dead aunts and uncles, to vote for him so they'll get these perks!! He wants to PROVE that no one succeeds on their own - that the government HAS to do it for them. If it's possible, he's even more disgusting than I had thought.
Pat, How can you honestly call the man a president for all Americans when he keeps putting out exe. orders for certain groups of people and then he wont even uphold our own federals laws on immigration. In my opion he is a very openly racist Black man and doesn't deserve a second term
And how many more millions of my tax money will this scoundrel give away to get himself elected. The cost of his amnesty for illegals is slated to run close to $1 billion. Wonder what his backdoor way of spending our money will cost. Doesn't this bastard care about our constitution and how this country is supposed to run. Can it be that he really is a Muslim, out to ruin our great country.
The entire public education system is an outdated, outmoded, unfocused disgrace. We must recognize that the convenience of keeping things as they are is on the brink of being replaced by an inconvenient generational disaster.
Racist pig. No wonder he want to raise taxes on successful working people It's time we whites had out own caucuses and focus groups to counteract this spendthrift scoundrel.
"Take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves."
Or, "take care of the country and your reelection will take care of itself."
The wisdom of this was missed by the President's handlers who also misjudged the savvy of the independent voters. Why else would they have bombarded them with dumbed down TV ads?
Somebody should have told them that these folks are sitting on the fence for a reason, and it is not a lack of foresight.
Indeed, it takes more foresight to figure out things yourself than to merely follow one herd or another. And deciding the things you care about does take time.
Yet, independent voters also need help. Though they do not blame the President for all of the country's problems, or expect him to fix them overnight, they do expect him to stay on the task day by day.
Yes, honest effort is what they want, but they are not seeing it lately. Perhaps this is because the President's handlers are too worried about losing their jobs to let him do his. But he is the President and he should get them all out of his way to focus on running our country.
Besides, keeping his nose on the grindstone might be the best way to convince the independents that he should get more time to finish out the job.
You don't have to look far to see that the educational system is a failure.
Look at all the people in Washington that have educated themselves into stupid.
Reelection time is here and I am your President and I am here to pander for your vote.
You've got to give Obama credit for thinking about the kids. Its not the first time he's talked like that. Look at how he wanted to protect the children of this country in this speech.
In February 2009, Democratic President Barack Obama stated:
I refuse to leave our children with a debt that they cannot repay. And that means taking responsibility right now, in this administration, for getting our spending under control.
"Remarks at the Fiscal Responsibility Summit." By Barack Obama. Government Printing Office, February 23, 2009. http://www.gpoaccess.gov/presdocs/2009/DCPD200900102.htm
He's failed at getting his spending under control, so maybe he'll have better luck borrowing money from China to pay for this new program.
Only problem is that by the time they get out of school, Obama will have left them a debt they will never be able to repay.
Obama, helping those who refuse to help themselves. Black America pay the less taxes but drain the most. Blacks have Affirmative Actions and swiping Civil Rights legislation over the last 30 years but they still cannot find their but they still fail to find their niche in America. Every other race has been in this country less time and have gone through the same heart ache but have strides in there place in America because they made the changes necessary to achieve success. There were no government programs or presidents promising programs directly for them, they did it through education, branching out and understanding.
Popo
46% of all Americans are living in or at the edge of poverty and an even greater number are receiving some sort of government assistance.
It doesn't matter what color you are because Obama's economic policies have all the colors in that 46%.
We know we have a racist President, now we have I'm showing the he is also not going to support our Constitution as well. He's putting into law unconstitutional policies. Our Constitution say and this is exact....Equal Rights Under the Law. Not more rights for some and less for other. It just continues to show he does not and will not follow the laws here.
He wants to get all the votes he can and he's only showing me he'll buy them now......
African Americans are not the minority anylonger and the financial assistance must shift away from this race and to other races. It is obvious now that Obama is irresponsible with our hard earned tax money.
Give them all you possibly can and they still won't take advantage of it. They will continue to breed like minks and stay on the welfare tit for generations to come.
I just hope our next President will work to unite & rebuild this country instead of the divide & destroy tactics that we are facing lately.
Obama once again adds to his record of being the most racially divisive President in history. He has brought race relations to an all time low.
For some of you all to even say that race doesn't matter anymore is absolutely absurd! Clearly it does, if it didn't why would job applications ask what race/ethnicity you are?? If you take a look at statistics you will see that the black community is suffering and has been for many years when it comes to education. It's terrible that in urban areas the education level is a lot lower compared to rural areas. Something needs to be done, and this program is a great push in a positive direction. On another note if race/ethnicity didn't matter then why does it matter if he is helping African Americans with their education. Listen to yourselves people, race has mattered and will always matter, sadly. All I can say is that Obama seems to be moving in a positive direction and I am extremely happy that he was chosen to be the President of the United States for 4 years thus far, hopefully he will continue with four more.
To each its own, we are all entitled to our own opinions so I thought I should share mine.
Probably becaause there are several federal bureaucracies, such as EEOC, that require regular reports on racial percentages in larger businesses.
The problem is that its not only the Blacks that aren't getting the proper education, its crosses every race. Its my understanding that we have dropped to 47th of countries who students performance are rated. That's a big drop when you consider that we were at the top of the list for many years.
Catz is correct. Under AFFIRMATIVE ACTION the race of the employee becomes a factor, so organizations like the Urban League, the NAACP, and the Black Congressional Caucus can tout just how bad racism is. The only problem is I grew up an inner city kid. The minority in my neighborhood. I got a job, not because I was white, but because I applied for the job. Yep, it sucked mopping the floor, cleaning the toilet, haulin trash, and the other little menial tasks my black employer had me do. But at 16, I was happy to have a job earning money, unlike the other youth in my ghetto neighborhood that resorted to selling dope, stealing, breaking into houses and cars, armed robbery, and mugging people as they came out of local stores. Race had little to do with getting that job - or perhaps it did, especially if I was the only one that bothered to apply.
To say blacks don't have educational opportunity is a load of horse@!$%#. I went to the same schools, had the same teachers, recieved the same public education as was available to the other black kids in my neighborhood. Yep, and sometimes when THEY CAME TO SCHOOL, they showed they could be bright, educated, and even speak (at least in the classroom) like civilized human beings. With that said, and having moved on from that neighborhood to obtain 4 college degrees, serve a 21 year stint in the US Military, and now raise a family of my own, as OBAMA said, "no one gets here alone." He was absolutely right. You see, we all need motivation of one sort or another. Mine was not wanting to end up like THEM.
Self determination, motivation, and pride is what pushed me to be something more than where I came from. Unfortunately that is a trait that seems to be lacking in that demographic. But I don't necessarily blame the inner city folks. I blame the government. I blame them because when everything is given to you, and they give you the "victim of racism" wild card, and they continually spoon feed you benefit after benefit after benefit and you don't have to work hard or apply yourself, I can see WHY social issues like this occur.
I have said it before, and I will say it again, YOUR FATE is in YOUR HANDS ALONE. Make the right decisions and reap the rewards of that hard work, that determination, and that self drive. When you fail, and you will have failures, you not only grow stronger, but you get smarter. And when you succeed, there is a sense of pride words can not express. But you will never know what it means to LIVE UP TO YOUR POTENTIAL, when you don't even bother to get your ass off the couch.
The power of your future rests solely in your hands...
You want to know what is really sad about this. Obama is going to pay for this program using executive order power. That only remains in force as long as he's president.
He's going to get these kids hopes up and then he's going to crush them when the funding stops and they're left high and dry.
That is the lowest thing one can do out of pure selfishness; using kids like that.
Wow! It's patently obvious that Pat Boston MA is a paid Obama troll - ignore all that he posts.
What a sleezebag? I get sicker every day with this man. Does he forget he is half white. Why does he always pander to the black population? I wish he would do something for white people. Talk about a racist.
I kind of disagree with you. Only in the sense that if he were to do something solely for white folks, that would make he a racist as well. The problem really is our supposed UNITED STATES isn't at all united. We classify ourselves by being African American, Caucasian, Native American, Hispanic-American, or by our sex, or by our religeon, or by our economic status.
If we bothered to look on our birth certificate, at least for those of us that are naturally born here, it says US CITIZEN. There is no color, race, or anything other than being part of what the GREATEST COUNTRY in the WORLD should mean. But we are too caught up with what our ancestors did, didn't do, should have done, or some other garbage to provide us with some sort of damned crutch. We are a country of excuses. And while we fight and bicker amongst ourselves we loose our identity as AMERICANS. We start to identify ourselves more by our race, or our political affiliation.
I have long said that we need to do away with political parties. George Washington said it best when he said, "political parties serve no other purpose than to divide what we have fought, died, and bled for." Look at us here on these blogs. Blaming each other by "political parties", rather than holding our elected officials ACCOUNTABLE by the CONSTITUENT. It makes NO DIFFERENCE how much SUPERPAC or SPECIAL INTEREST money goes into ads, campaign contributions, or the like, when the AMERICAN VOTER educates themselves as to what our representatives are doing. How they are voting on various issues. WE are their bosses. WE need to take an active roll in monitoring OUR EMPLOYEES and hold them ACCOUNTABLE. Sure, it is time consuming. But your vote is your #1 civic responsibility. And when you mark that bubble next to a candidates name because of the (D), (R), or (I), you become part of the problem.
I don't hesitate to send a letter or an email to my representative when I disagree or take exception to something they do. They represent me. And hey, I don't hesitate to remind them of that fact.
it should be for all americans no matter what race . the prez is part white you would think he'd be equal to all americans
We've all seen Obama act white when he's around whites and he acts black when he's around Blacks. Its election time and he sure must get confused at times being such a phony.
Another rabbit out of the hat just before election time.
You're fooling no one Obama. Where were you 4 years ago?
Pushing your socialist medicine show.
nothing has done more to destroy the black family than the federal government,via i.e. 'The Great Society'.....
And it happened to be the Democratic Party, the party that Black people love to die for, a party that has endorsed more hate than the Republicans can ever.Two worse things to happen to blacks since being brought to this world are slavery, and welfare, both Democratic backed agenda's.
Black people are stupid for not knowing the history of the party , and endorsing the mulatto overseer of the Democratic Plantation.
It will be interesting to see the list of Presidential pardons Mr. Obama makes upon his exit.