Virginia’s first and only African-American governor says President Obama left blacks in the dust and built an administration that “turned its back on core supporters in favor of holding hands with its enemies.”
L. Douglas Wilder, in his new autobiography Son of Virginia, expressed deep disappointment with America’s first black president, calling him “aloof” and “tone deaf” to blacks’ needs, leaving African-Americans to ask, “When is our time coming?”
Wilder, governor from 2005-09, and who served twice as mayor of Richmond, wrote, “This was not the ‘hope and change’ president we had expected.”
Worse, in his otherwise inspirational book about growing up the grandson of slaves in the cradle of the Confederacy, Wilder charged that black America is worse off under Obama. Describing what voters told him during Obama’s reelection campaign, Wilder wrote, “I was distressed by the deep well of unhappiness I felt as voters repeatedly described the ways in which they were worse off than they’d been at the beginning of President Obama’s term.”
He recalled a 2012 meeting at Washington’s historically black Howard University where blacks discussed the lack of programs aimed at them. “Nowhere was the promise of his election more deeply felt than in our community. Yet in the fourth year of the president’s term, they were left wondering, ‘How long?'”
Even Joe Biden takes a hit in the book, with Wilder slapping the vice president’s charge that 2012 GOP challenger Mitt Romney would “put y’all back in chains.” Said Wilder, “I got criticized myself when I said Biden was a tar baby that Obama was stuck with. I made no apologies. Unfortunately, it was true.”
His book is a richly detailed story of life in “Old Virginny,” and how he overcame constant racism to get to the top, always guided by the words of his mother: “Know you’re right, then proceed.”
But it is his criticism of Obama that stands out, especially his characterization that the president was afraid of appearing preferential to blacks.
“In his history, Obama had been thoughtful and even profound on social issues, and it’s the main reason he was elected president. But like so many politicians, he became a tool of his advisers as they tried to sway in cadence with the political winds. Too often, he was a president whose main goal seemed to be not making anyone mad. And as a result, he achieved the opposite.”
Putin whitewashing history to boost image, feed ego
There’s no question that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a Siberia-sized ego, and to feed it he has started to reinvent his nation’s history to make it appear persecuted by the United States. And he’s even rewriting school history books.
That comes from two top former diplomats with long histories with Moscow: Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
At a conference last week, Vike-Freiberga said new school books produced by Russia portray the country as “a poor little orphan” picked on by the West. She said it is “propaganda you’d expect in war time.”
Albright added that Putin has taken to rewriting history. He has, she said, “in fact made up his own facts.” One big example, said Albright, was the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine, which many in the West believe was shot down by invading Russian troops.
“They are now inventing their own version of history,” Albright said.
Former President Bill Clinton’s top diplomat suggested a couple of reasons for Putin’s actions. First, she said, “What Putin needs is an enemy.”
But as important is his, and Russia’s, ego. “An awful lot of this has to do with psychology and image.”
FEC: It’s OK if Hillary Clinton doesn’t provide popcorn, valet parking
Here’s how crazy campaign finance rules can be in presidential campaigns.
Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is pretty famous for jetting into campaign soirees and fundraisers to schmooze with big shots such as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. But she’s not planning to give every supporter the Hollywood treatment.
In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, her campaign said it planned to hold events next year where no food, booze or even car parking valet services will be offered.
Simple enough, but here’s where it gets complicated. What if people wanted to buy food at a Clinton venue, like a sports stadium, or use a valet service she didn’t hire? Would that be an “in-kind” campaign contribution?
FEC Chairwoman Ann Ravel led the commission last week to decide that buying popcorn or giving car keys to a valet wouldn’t amount to a contribution.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
