AMERICANS BLEAK ON RACE RELATIONS UNDER OBAMA – AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  It's sad, but the American people feel race relations under Obama have deteriorated rather than improved.  Chalk this up to Obama's utter incompetence in executing anything.  From Andrew Malcolm at IBD: 

As two presidents gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of a major civil rights turning point, a new poll reveals that only 15% of Americans say the country's race relations have improved under Barack Obama, who promised just that.

Another 39% of adult Americans say the nation's abiding racial divide has worsened under the first black chief executive, according to the CNN/ORC Poll. That includes 45% of whites and 26% of blacks. Even among Democrats, only 20% say race relations have improved under Obama.

Indeed, Obama's frequent early career talk of a post-racial America has been added to the lengthy list of unfulfilled promises by the man who entered office with so much hope and an approval rating above 60%. He now sits in the mid-forties and in Alabama earned barely 15% of the white vote in 2012.

By contrast, in the early months of Obama's presidency, only 6% thought race relations had worsened in the United States, while 32% said they had already seen improvements.

COMMENT:  It is perfectly reasonable for Obama to draw attention to unfinished business in confronting racism.  But, as the first black president, he has a great deal of credibility in speaking frankly to the black community about its own cultural problems, and what they are doing to black progress.  He only touches on that rarely, and I think many whites resent it.

We've said it many times here:  Obama knew how to run for president, but doesn't know how to be president.  Lyndon Johnson, a Texan, did a better job of advancing race relations than Obama has.  This is what happens when you have a president with no real preparation for the job.

March 9, 2015