Obama said in a pre-Super Bowl interview on NBC that his administration is creating more than 250,000 jobs a month, the most since 2005, and a reversal from the 750,000 jobs the economy was losing three years ago.

The president said American manufacturing still needs a boost and “We have got to make sure we are pushing American energy, not just oil and gas, but clean energy.”

Obama also said the country needed to return to “old-fashioned American values,” so “everyone gets a fair shake.”

Three years ago, Obama said if the economy hadn’t turned around by this time, his presidency would be “a one-term proposition.”

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“I don’t think there’s a better time than African-American History month to consider the tremendous progress we’ve made through the sacrifices of so many, or a better time to recommit to the challenges we face right now,” said Obama in a video to his supporters.

It is expected that the Democrats would work to shore up their Black base right before the president’s bid for re-election. The dampened enthusiasm among Black voters who are facing 15.8 percent unemployment and rapidly declining wealth levels is also expected. The Black unemployment number is more than double that of white Americans, which stands at 7.5 percent. Throughout the Obama presidency, White unemployment has improved, while Black unemployment has gotten markedly worse.

Ironically, the “African Americans for Obama” website says that the president has been fighting “to restore economic security that has been eroding for American families for a decade.”

President Obama won 96 percent of the Black vote in 2008. His approval rating today stands at 91 percent. The black community continues to be the strongest and most loyal base of the Obama Administration.

Political commentator, Yvette Carnell, has something to say about the issue:

“I have no problem with Obama targeting African-American voters. None. He needs us and he knows it,” said Carnell. “What I do have a problem with, however, is how most of the targeting begins during campaign season and ends on election day. We’re more than just a voting bloc. We’re real citizens with real needs, needs which I hope the President begins to acknowledge and address.”

Columbia University Professor Christopher Emdin doesn’t agree with Carnell’s assessment.

“I do not believe the ‘frustration and dampened enthusiasm’ cited within Af-American communities is as pervasive as we are led to believe. With that being said, these facts do not negate the fact that these communities are dealing with serious issues related to education and poverty,” said Dr. Emdin. “I do not believe that Obama’s campaigning in Af-American communities is reflective of some ulterior agenda to “use them when he needs them.  It very well may be an effort to make a shift to explicitly focus on the needs of this community.”

The pending re-election of Barack Obama has put Black voters in a quandary. While many would agree that conditions have worsened for the Black community under Obama, the Republican Party provides no reasonable alternatives. In many cases, Black people have become the political orphans of America:

You can either live with the parents who abuse you or live with the child molester down the street. While one fate is clearly worse than the other, there is no end to the pain in sight.

It is actually logical for the Obama Administration to keep Black voters on the back-burner. When a group gives you 91 percent approval and asks for nothing in return, there is almost no political incentive to do anything for them. This calculation likely played a role in the statement that the “rising tide will lift all boats” made three years ago, when the president was asked about inequality in wealth and unemployment. The “lift all boats” policy was a clear and miserable failure, for most economic experts can tell you that racial inequality is not going to fix itself without targeted economic policy.

Right now, in the Black community, there are at least two types of people: those who are suffering and those who are not. The suffering group consists of the poor, unemployed, and those who live under the thumb of the criminal justice system. The rest of us have jobs, food to eat and are not impacted directly by mass incarceration. If you’re in the second group, it’s difficult to find fault with the Obama Administration, for a Black president grants the symbolic comfort that comes along with the “Mama I Made It” syndrome that justifies the trade-offs many of us make for the sake of economic and social progress in a White supremacist society.  Being the first Black president is the granddaddy of all “proud mama” moments, so there are millions willing to forgive nearly any short-coming of the Obama White House to maintain access to the throne.

For those who care about the poor, there is almost no redemption when the president barely mentions poverty in his speeches.  For the unemployed, it’s hard to imagine how your life will get better by supporting an administration that helped white folks find jobs while letting the Black numbers reach levels approaching those of the Great Depression. For those suffering with the effects of mass incarceration, it’s hard to get excited about a president who has not directly confronted the debilitating effects of the drug war, which has destroyed millions of families and an entire generation of children.  All of these issues indicate a state of emergency in the Black community; but thus far, we’ve only given White Americans the right to express dissatisfaction with their condition.

The implicit African American slogan for the Democratic Party is “You should just stop complaining, because the Republicans are even worse than we are.” The threat of political punishment is clearly enough to secure the Black vote without doing a thing. But at the same time, the Black political orphans of America do have a choice. WEB Dubois, when faced with few quality political options 50 years ago, simply said that he refused to vote at all.  Rather than behaving like a teenage girl who shares her body with the first man who buys her a cheeseburger, Dubois advocated for the idea that we save our votes for politicians who have truly worked to earn them.

After a mass holdout from conscientious Black voters, perhaps the Democrats will then strive to honestly earn the Black vote instead of simply telling us that they are not as horrible as the Republicans.  It should not be taboo to request that Black voters have enough self-respect to demand that all politicians give priority to the issues that lead to our suffering. There are no victims, just volunteers, and we don’t have to be political orphans forever.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here,

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In the video, he shares his understanding of the plight of everyday Americans and juxtaposes it with emotional — or so he hopes — references to the Civil Rights Movement and slavery and urges Black voters to “keep making history”:

This month we are announcing the 2012 launch of African Americans for Obama. I don’t think there’s a better time than African-American history month to consider the tremendous progress that we’ve made through the sacrifices of so many, or a better time to commit to meeting the very real challenges we face right now.

Every day I think of the generations of African-American men and women who overcame slavery and oppression, risked their own safety to cast a ballot, even gave up their lives to help build a country that lived up to its founding principles. Their extraordinary hope, their unwavering determination changed this country. Their efforts made it possible for somebody like me to be here today.”

Beginning in November, when Obama surprised attendees of the first African-American Policy In Action Leadership Conference, and gaining momentum with the White House release of “The President’s Agenda and the African-American Community,” the president has quietly tried to staunch the flow of resentment that many in the Black community feel for his seemingly blatant lack of disregard for the nearly 16 percent unemployment rate – nearly double the national average — and his continued focus on the middle-class while an estimate 27.4 percent of African-Americans are living below the poverty line.

Still, according to a statement on BarackObama.com, that shouldn’t stop African-Americans from coming out in droves in November in support of the president:

In some ways this election is more important than the last for our community. If we fail to re-elect President Obama, some people will say everything we’ve accomplished since 2008 was a fluke. That’s why we’ve got to speak loudly about his accomplishments and make sure that, throughout the campaign, we’ve got President Obama’s back.”

For many in the African-American community, that decision hinges upon clear evidence that Obama has ours.

To learn more about the campaign, click here.

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Google announced Monday that Obama will participate in a 45-minute live video chat room known as a “Hangout,” part of the online search giant’s social networking site Google Plus. The chat will take place Monday afternoon, Jan. 30, capping a week of social media engagement the White House is planning around the State of the Union speech.

Obama speaks to Congress and the nation on Tuesday.

Google Plus will solicit questions over the video sharing site YouTube, and users will then vote on their favorites. The president will answer some video questions, and will also chat directly with a group of the questioners.

The exchange will appear on the White House Google Plus page, and will be live streamed on the whitehouse.gov website.

Obama participated in YouTube town halls after his last two State of The Union speeches, taking questions submitted to the video sharing site. The planned Hangout goes a step further, offering some of those questioners a chance to interact directly with the president.

Macon Phillips, White House director of digital strategy, said the White House would have no role in choosing the questions or participants in the Hangout.

“For online engagement to be interesting, it has to be honest,” Phillips said. “We want to give Americans more control over this conversation and the chance to ask questions they care about.”

Google has hosted Hangouts with other political figures, including Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. But Obama’s planned Hangout will be a presidential first and is certain to draw more attention to Google Plus, which has battled to catch up with social networking giant Facebook in membership and influence.

The Hangout element “will make for really personal conversation with the president that’s never really happened before,” said Steve Grove, head of community partnerships for Google Plus. “Whether it’s good for Google Plus or not, I guess viewers will decide by how well we pull it off.”

Google, Facebook and other social media sites have been steadily boosting their presence in electoral politics.

Facebook cosponsored a Republican primary debate with NBC News earlier this month, and last year Obama visited Facebook’s headquarters in California, where he took questions submitted to the site.

Google sponsored a Republican debate with Fox News in September and has been a go-to hub for online political advertising.

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The president, along with wife Michelle Obama and daughter Malia, joined other volunteers at Browne Education Center in Washington.

During brief remarks, the president said there was no better way to honor King than to do something on behalf of others. He also acknowledged the controversy surrounding a quote on the new MLK memorial in Washington, which is being changed amid criticism that it did not accurately reflect King’s words.

“What he really said was all of us can be a drum major for service, all of us can be a drum major for justice,” Obama said. “There is nobody who can’t serve, nobody who can’t help somebody else.”

The inscription on the King memorial, located on the National Mall, currently reads: “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” The phrase is modified from a sermon known as the “Drum Major Instinct“, which King delivered just two months before he was assassinated in 1968.

In the speech, King’s words seem more modest than the paraphrased inscription: “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

After meeting with volunteers, the Obamas headed to the school library to help build bookshelves and a reading corner for students. The president and first lady were then put to work painting two King quotes on the library walls.

The president stood on a chair and carefully used blue paint to write the phrase “The time is always right to do what is right.” Mrs. Obama painted the words “I have a dream.”

This was the third year in a row the Obamas have participated in a service project on the King holiday.

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Beyonce is not just kicking back after the birth of her first child. She started a project before the birth and will continue now that Blue Ivy is here.

Via Hello Beautiful

Beyonce, Diddy, Rachel Roy, Russell Simmons and more are designing clothing and accessories as part of a fundraising effort to get Obama re-elected in 2012.

Shirts, bags, scarfs and items that still have yet to be revealed are available for all his loyal supporters to buy, including a few by the First Lady’s fave designers Thakoon and Jason Wu.

And they look to be under $100!

The criticism was based on a Halloween party the Obama family had in 2009 that was designed by director, Tim Burton. Limbaugh attacked the Obama family for living lavishly in the White House because they believed theywere  owed the lifestyle because of what was done to their ancestors (slavery).

The Huffington Post reports:

“No way the press didn’t know about this,” he said. “If we didn’t know about this, what else is going on in there that we didn’t know about… that the press knows about but is choosing not to report?”

Limbaugh also raised the subject of slavery and Jim Crow when he analyzed the Obamas’ behavior in office. He said that the couple viewed their tenure as an opportunity to “live high on the hog,” and that the idea that they were “owed this because of what’s been done to us and our ancestors” was “part of” their thinking.

Read More At The Huffington Post

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One of Obama’s most consistent critics, Smiley has often accused the President of not doing enough for the poor and the millions of African-Americans who helped elect him into the Oval Office. Smiley had this to say about his ouster as the MLK keynote speaker:

Tavis Smiley, the PBS talk show host who has criticized President Barack Obama for not doing enough for the African-American community, says he was ousted as the speaker at a Martin Luther King luncheon because he was trying to hold the president accountable.

“I don’t see my role as one of criticizing the president. I see my role as one of holding the president – this and every other president—accountable,” Smiley said on Fox News on Monday.

“Something is wrong with this country … that so often the political right, and I am no defender of the political right … gets accused of playing the game of political correctness. What this underscores is that those on the left, the Democrats can play that game of political correctness as well,” he added.

Smiley’s replacement will be Hip-Hop intellectual and Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson. Smiley was set to earn $37,000, but will be given a smaller cancellation fee instead.

Should officials at the Peoria Civic Center have buckled to the pressure of a few Obama supporters? And do you feel Tavis Smiley has been treated unfairly because he is a black public figure who criticizes the President? Give us your thoughts!

Read the rest of the story here.

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JANUARY

In the first month of office, Obama gave a State of the Union address that touted the United States as a place where “we do big things” and called for innovation to spur the flailing economy:

“We’re the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook,” he said.

FEBRUARY

In the second month of office, Obama appeared on WTMJ in which he called the Wisconsin budget battle an “assault on unions.”

MARCH

In the third month of office, Obama authorized military action in Libya to assist in stabilizing the country’s Arab Spring civil war (by year’s end, Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi was ousted and killed by a civilian army).

APRIL

In the fourth month of office, Obama announced his reelection bid via an online video, e-mail, and newly designed website:

We’re doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you — with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends, he wrote.

MAY

In the fifth month of office, Obama unleashed the Special Ops on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani compound, which resulted in the death of the al Qaeda leader.

JUNE

In the sixth month of office, Obama announced his plans to withdraw one-third of the approximately 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, beginning with the return of 10,000 soldiers to home soil by the end of this year.

JULY

In the seventh month of office, Obama met with the Dalai Lama, which Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a written statement was an act that “grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, hurt the feelings of Chinese people, and damaged Sino-American relations.”

AUGUST

In the eighth month of office, Obama signed legislation to raise the U.S. debt ceiling and evade a government shut down just hours before the deadline:

This compromise guarantees more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction,” he said. “It is an important first step to ensuring that, as a nation, we live within our means.

SEPTEMBER

In the ninth month of office, Obama delivered a U.N. General Assembly speech, saying that he believes “the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own,” but Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ plan to ask the U.N. Security Council for intervention is not a strategy President Obama supports, because “a genuine peace can only be realized between Israelis and the Palestinians themselves.”

OCTOBER

In the tenth month of office, Obama gave a speech at the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial:

An earthquake and a hurricane may have delayed this day, but this is a day that would not be denied. For this day, we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s return to the National Mall. In this place, he will stand for all time, among monuments to those who fathered this nation and those who defended it.

NOVEMBER

In the eleventh month of office, Obama visited an independent book store with daughters Sasha and Malia to celebrate “Small Business Saturday” (they bought “The Phantom Tollbooth” among other interesting reads).

DECEMBER

In the twelfth month of office, Obama announced that unemployment may drop to 8 percent by next year’s election. Currently, the rate is 8.6 percent, compared to 9 percent in January.

How you like them pear trees?

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The president and his family woke up early Sunday to open gifts, the White House said, then had breakfast and sang Christmas carols at the multimillion-dollar house they rent in Kailua Beach, near Honolulu.

Obama made two trips on Christmas to nearby Marine Corps Base Hawaii, first to attend church services at the base chapel. The president dressed casually in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt, and his wife and daughters donned sundresses for Christmas services on a bright, breezy day on the island of Oahu.

After spending a few hours at their rental home, the president and Michelle Obama returned to the base to visit with several hundred service members and their families, as they have done in past years.

The Obamas posed for photos, signed autographs and stopped to chat with the military families gathered in the dining hall, where roast beef, salad and apple pie were on the Christmas Day menu.

Eight-month-old Cooper Wall Wagner, son of Capt. Greg Wagner, got up close and personal with the president, grabbing his face, then sticking his fingers in Obama’s mouth.

An amused Obama said he thought the baby just liked his “big nose” – a comment that drew laughter from several of the Marines.

Many of the service members stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii have deployed to Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, where the last American troops were withdrawn earlier this month.

Back in the Washington area, Vice President Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden spent Christmas visiting wounded service members and their families at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

Obama also called 10 service members stationed around the world – two from each branch of the military – on Christmas Eve. The White House said he thanked them for their service and the sacrifice of being away from their families at the holidays.

The Obamas were wrapping up their Christmas festivities with dinner at the rental home with friends and family. Among those joining the first family in Hawaii are the president’s sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who lives on Oahu, and several friends Obama has known since high school.

The president has kept a low profile since arriving in Hawaii on Friday evening to start a vacation delayed by the stalemate in Washington over extending payroll tax cuts. He has no public events planned, and his only outings are expected to be to the golf course or to take his daughters for shave ice, a Hawaiian snow cone.

The Obamas are expected to return to Washington shortly after New Year’s Day.

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