President Obama scolds the Congressional Black Caucus & blacks saying “take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching boots and stop complaining, stop grumbling and stop crying and help get the jobs bill passed in Congress, but would have addressed the Jewish community, gays and Hispanics in a similar manner?

President Barack Obama delivered a “fiery” sermon to his base at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation awards dinner pushing for passage of his jobs bill telling them to “take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes, shake it off. Stop grumbling, stop crying and stop complaining, we have work to do.” The reference to “marching shoes’ shoes was a direct hit to Rep. Emanuel Cleaver who recently said if Bill Clinton had been president, there would be a “march on the White House” over the high unemployment rate in the black community. In other words, Obama is getting a pass from the CBC coming out really swinging because he’s black. I seriously doubt anyone in the room last was offended by the president’s comments, though I would expect someone like Rep. John Lewis, a foot soldier in the civil rights movement, who was beaten for marching and taking a stand against racial injustice in this country, to take offense to his choice of words. We know the Congressional Black Caucus won’t work against Obama. Unless donkeys fly and it’s a cold day in hell. They want to see him re-elected, so yes, they heeded the call last night, as Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz said on the Sunday news circuit.

Obama told the audience that they should have hope in the future. Yeah, sort of like the “hope and changed” he promised in 2008. He also said he needed their help. Yeah, that’s because the white Democrats, Latinos, the rich and the Independents are sitting on a fence. We are the ones the Democratic Party continues to take for granted. This is the first time in months I have heard the president directly address the black voting bloc. I hate to say it, but this seems like the prodigal son returning home after living it up with the other folks. He has an enormous problem, with a recent poll saying Americans think he’s just as bad a president as his predecessor, George W. Bush, under whose watch the wheels started coming off the American bus. So, Rep. Cleaver, do you still really want to march on the White House? Or are you going to chicken out and hide behind your blackness? President Obama scolded the CBC like they were kids who got caught in the cookie jar. Unbelievable. I also believe President Obama cast himself as a quasi-martyr by saying he will continue to “press on,” despite his abysmal approval ratings and though not offensive, it comes across as a little desperate. I feel his pain and I would never blame him for the mes we are in because it’s not his fault, but we can’t keep saying, it’s not his fault and don’t move forward. He’s the president and like he says, the buck stops with me.” Yeah, it does and not it’s your mess. Something has to give and the knuckleheads in Washington D.C. masquerading like they give a heck about the least among us all need to get walking papers. This is why we need term limits in Congress, just like the president. There’s no reason for any legislator to serve more than two terms.

Here’s my take on President Obama’s speech last night in a nutshell: arrogant and that elitist label came in to play. How dare President Obama tell the black community to just shut up and stop complaining? There are a lot of things to complain about. In other words, just ignore the issues and just re-elect him just because he’s black, maybe? What President Obama needs to tell the CBC and the black community is that there are jobs out there, but people need to be retrained and get new skillsets to take advantage of the emerging technological era. Most of the jobs that were eliminated aren’t coming back. Go back to school and learn a new skill in technology and science. If the Black Wall Street could flourish in the early 1900s in Oklahoma, then we can create many Black Wall Streets across this country during this century. Stop listening to politicians promise to give you the world. They can’t do it. You have to help yourself. The truth is, most people don’t want a handout from the government. They want to help themselves.

This article was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.