Barack Obama took a sharp left turn this week, almost a u-turn and strayed away from his here-t0-for successful formula of talking about the positive and avoiding the issues of African Americans.
He offered up a portrait of 'hopelessness' and the 'potential (of the inner-city) to erupt into uncontrolled violence' according to a recent article in the Chicago tribune. Link to Obama warns of black 'quiet riot' | Chicago Tribune
This glass more than half empty speech might be viewed by some as a speech where Obama finally starts to get real. It might also be viewed as desperation.
Obama has been doing fairly well so far, holding his own against Hillary Clinton and easily fending off John Edwards. So why change a winning formula now half way through the course?
Typically, politicians do not fix something that isn't broken, so it must be that Obama has seen some polls or numbers or received feedback that something is broken. He's now turning away from main stream Americans and middle class African American voters and hoping to reach out to disenfranchised African American voters living in the slums all around the country.
I applaud him for tackling reality finally, but now that he's let the cat out of the bag will he still be able to maintain his winning formula?
Unfortunately, history has not been kind to previous African American candidates in this regard. Time will tell this time.
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