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Adam wonders about the rise in, well, strange theories and attacks on the president. Me, I'm not so surprised; remember in the early 1990s when President Bill Clinton's political opponents thought he had one of his own advisers murdered? There's something about a Democrat in office that lets the nuts loose. The fact that he's a black man with a complex personal history is just adding fuel to the fire. But unlike Adam, I don't think the problem stems from Obama's initial -- and politically unfortunate -- reaction to the Gates incident early in the summer. Adam cites poll numbers slipping among white voters, but even today, with his approval among white voters at 43 percent, more white voters approve of him than actually voted for him -- a mere 41 percent. If he lost support for his remarks about Gates, he didn't lose it from the people who voted for him, and he's still more popular among whites than he was on Election Day last year. And, for what it's worth, the most recent Gallup tracking polls have his approval climbing again.The ultimate causes of Obama's summer political troubles are much more prosaic: legislative confusion, a lack of major accomplishments since the spring, and continuing and robust attacks from the right on every issue, not just race. Between those political intangibles and increasing unemployment, you don't have to look back on a old incident that is, for better or worse, fading from people's minds, to find the cause of Obama's current challenges.Like any politician, Obama has a tendency to avoid confrontation of any kind. Whenever he's asked specifically about his economic policies toward minorities, for instance, he immediately starts talking about how his policies help everyone, not just one group. He tends to make his points about race symbolically -- see the beer summit -- and through policy changes that aren't racially framed. But does Obama have an implicit promise never to confront whites about the issue of race, as Shelby Steele argues? Obama actually made an explicit promise to his white supporters during the campaign:
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.I'd say white voters who cast their lot for Obama knew what they were getting themselves into, whether they heard about this much-publicized speech or understood it implicitly. And that group has still grown since last November, despite everything that has happened this summer.
-- Tim Fernholz
