President Obama is well positioned to understand what is happening in predominantly black communities across America, which have had basically no real recovery since the era of Reaganomics. The Clinton economy helped a bit because of the combination of service-sector expansion, a decent tax base through high employment, consumer spending, and the housing bubble. But on the other hand, incarceration, underfunded schools, and the collapse of industrial America has seriously decimated a lot of urban and predominantly black communities. You both know that, right? You can see that anywhere - Detroit and Flint, Cleveland, Washington DC, or even rural Mississippi. Some of these communities have seen very little development for decades, and now that the "official" unemployment rate is 10%, the unofficial rate at 18%, you know how it is for African Americans - at least twice as high as the official rate, and that's just the national numbers. Probably the poverty rate is over 40% - it's typically three times the national average, which is now around 13%. Then you get to the places that have been completely neglected even in good times, and you see a sad sad story of official neglect and disinvestment that we ought to be ashamed of as a country.

There is no excuse - none whatsoever - for Pres. Obama to ignore this situation, and for the most part that's what he's done. I agree with many of Obama's actions, but flyover economics isn't going to work anymore than flyover presidential leadership helped New Orleans after Katrina. If Pres. Obama thinks that tinkering with the federal reserve, middle class tax cuts, and an undersized infrastructure program are going to ease the economic problems among African Americans - he's flat out wrong. And I really respect both you and Prosense, but we're fooling ourselves if we defend Obama on this one.