WyBlog

Obama to NJ African-Americans: I'm Black, you're Black, vote for my guy

President Obama returned to NJ for a third time today to rally the troops in support of embattled Governor Jon Corzine's re-election bid. He made stops in Camden and Newark, two traditionally democratic strongholds.

Obama's message to the party faithful? I'm Black, you're Black, vote for my guy.

Democrats hope rallies with the country's first African-American president will spur the large minority populations in both cities to cast their votes for Corzine.

Corzine's popularity is lower than that of any governor in recent memory. Jim "biggest tax increase in history" Florio had a higher approval rating when he lost to Republican Christine Todd Whitman.

"Hundreds of supporters" turned out in Camden to see the president. He's going all in to bolster Corzine's sagging chances, but it looks like the party faithful are sitting on their hands. If Obama were as popular as his handlers make him out to be, he ought to be able to draw more than a few hundred hard-core party apparatchiks on a Sunday morning. Unless, of course, the message he's delivering isn't resonating with the voters.

And frankly it's a pretty insulting message. He's playing the race card, effectively telling our state's African-American population that they have to follow him in lockstep. Doesn't that insult their intelligence? Corzine already tried to buy their votes yet in the latest polls he's still tied with challenger Chris Christie in a statistical dead heat. Perhaps the minority voters of our state have finally figured out that voting democratic isn't easier than getting a job, especially when the democrats have been chasing the jobs away in droves.

Last year New Jersey went overwhelmingly for Obama. The president is hoping to drag Jon Corzine back into office on his coattails; it's his last chance before the 2010 mid-term elections to vindicate his policy prescriptions in a national contest (seeing as how his star-power can't sway the Virginia gubernatorial or NY-23 congressional outcomes in his favor).

Obama has sent his top lieutenants to help out Corzine's campaign. Now he's desparately seeking votes in places where the votes have always been taken for granted. We're in the home stretch with less than 48 hours to go before the voters head to the polls. Jon Corzine may yet pull this election out by the skin of his teeth. It all depends on whether or not our voters can look beyond race or party affiliation and pick the candidate who is best for New Jersey and not the one who is best for President Obama.

Posted at 12:58 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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