A week after the controversy over the Obama administration’s decision to invite Black bloggers and Black media to a summit at the White House, the administration is not backing down from critics saying the White House is pandering for the Black vote.
In fact, The Root reports the administration has defended the summit and its outreach effort. No surprise because the summit was not a secret. It was even reported on the White House Blog the day after the event and before all of the hullabaloo over it taking place in the first place.
And as a further, IN YOUR FACE, reply, the DNC announced that it is spending an unprecedented $3 MILLION dollars in radio, print and online ads to get the get out the vote message out.
This week, the President can be heard in a campaign that is airing nationwide on Black radio and is essentially Obama asking voters to stand with him and VOTE. It complements billboards like the one above that is strategically located in an all black urban town not far from my home.
http://my.democrats.org/DNC_RadioAD_105110
The fact remains many of Obama’s supporters, including the youth and Blacks, would not ordinarily be inclined to vote during the midterm elections, and traditionally don’t.
To further complicate matters, it is hard to predict whether the effort will work or not because as is well known and as PEW research Center and Nielsen media reports have shown, Blacks and Hispanics are high users of mobile phone devices and more likely to have canceled landline phone and use mobile phones exclusively. Pollsters traditionally and historically do NOT poll mobile phone users, therefore the story and numbers behind election polls are not complete or entirely accurate.
Notwithstanding all of that, the prospect that the Dems could make a surprise upset is not sitting well with some folks. Apparently, the effort is incensing those who do not like the fact that the Black and Hispanic vote is becoming more and more critical for the Dems attempt to suppress the predicted sweep by the GOP in the House.
One example:
The commenter to my YouTube channel video who told me in no uncertain terms that he is disgusted by the fact that Democrats are counting on “dumb Blacks like you who vote with your race and are race loyalists.” Ouch! Harsh!
A second example:
A GOP friendly front group Latino for Reform is attempting to sabotage Harry Reid’s chances of beating Sharon Angle in Nevada. Reid is relying on the Latino vote to pull him over in that tight race.
The group paid Univision $80,000 to air commercials encouraging Hispanic Americans in Nevada to stay home and Not even bother exercising their constitutional right to vote as a form of protest against the Obama administration for not moving fast and hard enough on Immigration Reform. Responding to the outcry, Univision eventually pulled the ads, stating that it will not support that effort…any longer. We all know but for the public outcry, Univision would have kept that money and quietly turned its head.
Insane!
All of this begs the question which my co-host Shanon Murray and I will discuss on Right of Black:
To what extent are Blacks and Latino voters being set up to be scapegoated should they not turn out sufficiently to stave off the predicted GOP sweep?
Inquiring minds want to know…
Jay Jay Ghatt is also editor at Techyaya.com, founder of the JayJayGhatt.com and JayJayGhatt.com where she teaches online creators how to navigate digital entrepreneurship and offers Do-It-For-You Blogging Service. She manages her lifestyle sites BellyitchBlog, Jenebaspeaks and JJBraids.com and is the founder of BlackWomenTech.com 200 Black Women in Tech On Twitter. Her biz podcast 10 Minute Podcast is available on iTunes and Player.fm. Follow her on Twitter at @Jenebaspeaks. Buy her templates over at her legal and business templates on Etsy shop!
