Louie Gohmert wishes Obama were less ‘divisive’ and more like his black basketball coach

There’s a reason reporters clamored around former-candidate-for-Speaker Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) at the State of the Union like this:

He’s always good for an honest quote. After the president’s address, Gohmert told reporters he thinks Obama has “been so divisive on the issue of race.”

He said he had hoped Obama’s election would put the issue of race “behind us,” but “unlike my favorite coach in high school, who happened to be black, he has been more divisive — when I had a coach that brought us together as a team like never before.”

“I thought this president would do that,” he continued. “He has divided more than united, so that’s been heartbreaking.”

Gohmert’s sentiments actually reflect numerous recent polls: most Americans do not think race relations have improved under this president. A YouGov poll recently found that 49 percent of Americans think race relations have gotten worse under Obama’s watch, while an Al Jazeera America/Monmouth University Poll found that 43 percent say relations have gotten worse and 40 percent think they’re the same. African American and Latino respondents were more likely than whites to say things had not changed under Obama’s leadership.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll had similar findings: in July 2013, African Americans’ perception of race relations was worse than it had been before Obama took office. After Ferguson, 63 percent said race relations were bad. At the time of Obama’s inauguration, 79 percent of whites called race relations “good”; now only 40 percent say the same.