This is not really Late Breaking News, but Dem Rep Maxine

[coalition_unwilling]

Waters may have made it acceptable now for African Americans to break openly with Obama.

Local television news tonight (on ABC 7 in Los Angeles) led with a story that Waters is criticizing Obama for his poor record on jobs creation and for his indifference to the economic blight in urban areas.

As is often the case with local TV news reporting here, the story was garbled almost to the point of incomprehensibility, not least by the mangled delivery of the local news anchors. But the story included an extended clip of Waters laying into Obama for visiting rural (read 'white') America on his recent bus trip while ignoring the inner cities.

N.B. National unemployment rate is currently 9.1% but among African Americans the official rate is above 16%. Waters alleges that the real rate of unemployment in Watts is in the neighborhood of 40%.

I was astounded to see a prominent black politician break so publicly with Obama. From what I know, African Americans have until now constituted one of the most reliable voting blocs for Obama.

[truedelphi]

1. She and Dennis Kucinich and even Darrel Issa were

Very aware of the grave trouble that the Federal Reserve under Paulson/Kashkari were creating for the Middle Class, while they gave tens of billions away to the Upper One Percent. And now that Bernie Sanders has helped have the Fed audited, we see that those three were right.

I love Maxine Waters.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. I'm not in Waters' district but in the 33rd, the one next to Waters', currently

represented by Karen Bass (who replaced Diane Watson upon Watson's retirement).

Karen Bass is pretty impressive. I'm waiting to see what, if anything, she has to say about Obama and jobs. Will be emailing her about it this weekend.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. On the ABC evening news last night,

they reported that thousands of people went to an event to apply for jobs in Atlanta. The event was organized by the Congressional Black Caucus and they had a short interview with Rep. Lewis. The Caucus is supposed to organize an event in L.A. and, I think, in Chicago. The people they interviewed at the event yesterday were getting desperate and running out of money for bills.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Here is a response, only it was written to the chair of the CBC, Barbara Lee....

Dear Rep. Barbara Lee, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Can We Talk?
http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2011/08/18/dear-rep-barbara-lee-chair-of-the-congressional-black-caucus-can-we-talk/

[MrScorpio]

8. That really is a must read piece

Thanks

[TrainToCry]

5. Hip Hip Hooray!! You must be ecstatic.

Obama bashing is now African-American approved.

You must be so proud.

[DCKit]

9. Ms. Waters doesn't bash anyone. She's a lady. Always.

She simply spoke the truth.

[TrainToCry]

6. dupe

[mfcorey1]

7. So now the the rethugs get off scott free when they campaigned in 2010 on

creating jobs. All they did was enter a woman's bedroom to tell her what to do with her body and answered no to anything that would help create jobs and some stability to the economy. No hip hip hooray here.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. Oh, there's absolutely zero doubt that things would be much

worse with a Repuke in the Executive and Repuke majorities in the House and Senate. I think we'd be easily staring at a national U2 unemployment rate of 25% within 18 months of such a consolidation of Repuke power.

However, that does not negate the fact that, when Obama took office, the national unemployment rate was 7.6% and it now stands at 9.1%.

I posted mainly b/c it is the first time I have seen an African-American progressive break publicly with Obama over his record and policies.

[TheManInTheMac]

11. African Americans are dependent on Maxine Waters

to tell them who it is acceptable to support? I didn't know that.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[swilton]

13. This had been foreshadowed by Cornell West and

Tavis Smiley who are touring the country to refocus on jobs and the poor, and criticizing the Obama Administration for ignoring the plight of the poor.