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   From: vduke@lynch.com   
      
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   New York Times Conduct Not Angelic   
      
   "Counterfeit"? A "pimp"? Cornel West’s vicious attack on   
   President Obama   
      
   Cornel West is an ultra-liberal, tough-talking, African-American   
   professor who can’t stand Barack Obama.   
      
   Even in light of this longstanding animosity, West has mounted   
   an extraordinarily harsh and personal attack on the president.   
   And that says two things to me:   
      
   One, Obama is as deeply disliked by some on the far left as he   
   is on the right.   
      
   And two, Cornel West is one angry dude.   
      
   It’s unlikely that any person who could be elected president of   
   the United States would satisfy West. He has no patience for the   
   compromises and trade-offs that our political system demands. He   
   comes off as an absolutist for whom any deviation from left-wing   
   orthodoxy is a shameful sellout.   
      
   West is a longtime Princeton professor and author who went to   
   jail after protesting New York’s stop-and-frisk policy. He’s   
   gained new visibility by co-hosting a radio show with Tavis   
   Smiley. And with most black liberals in the Al Sharpton mode,   
   fervently supporting the president, West stands out.   
      
   West tells Thomas Frank in Salon that Obama “posed as a   
   progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a   
   Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, a national security   
   presidency. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go   
   free.”   
      
   Okay, at least that attack is policy-based. He thinks Obama has   
   been too friendly to big banks and hasn’t cracked down on Bush   
   administration officials over waterboarding. Next up:   
      
   “We ended up with a brown-faced Clinton. Another opportunist.   
   Another neoliberal opportunist.”   
      
   I thought Bill Clinton was kind of the first black president.   
   West doesn’t like him either.   
      
   Then he takes a musical turn: “It’s like you’re looking for John   
   Coltrane and you get Kenny G in brown skin.”   
      
   So Obama doesn’t strike the right notes.   
      
   Next, a prostitution analogy: “What I hear is that, ‘He pimped   
   us.’ I heard that a zillion times. ‘He pimped us, brother West.’”   
      
   I was going to diagram this one but gave up.   
      
   Oh, and Obama “was chosen because he always occupied the middle   
   ground. He doesn’t realize that a great leader, a statesperson,   
   doesn’t just occupy middle ground. They occupy higher ground or   
   the moral ground or even sometimes the holy ground.”   
      
   Well, it’s not an unreasonable critique. The president’s split-   
   the-difference approach often makes neither side happy, and that   
   was particularly true when he was trying to negotiate with the   
   Republican leadership.   
      
   For what it’s worth, West also uses the Salon interview to rip   
   Sharpton (“the word integrity does not come to mind,” a man who   
   “sees it as an act of racial traitorship to be critical of the   
   president”).   
      
   Sharpton, by the way, delivered a highly political eulogy at   
   Michael Brown's funeral Monday, then led off his MSNBC show with   
   four long sound bites from the speech. Talk about covering   
   yourself!   
      
   West, for his part, also dumps on MSNBC (“it’s all Obama   
   propaganda”). And he’s not waiting for Hillary (“an extension of   
   Obama’s Wall Street presidency, drone presidency, national   
   surveillance, national security presidency”).   
      
   There’s a place for activists who push Democratic presidents   
   from the left or Republican presidents from the right. But   
   West’s words are so harsh that he seems more interested in   
   denigrating than influencing.   
      
   It’s hardly an overstatement to say that Obama wouldn’t want   
   Cornel West as an ally, that the man’s fierce rhetoric would   
   turn off the broad swath of voters in the middle. The president   
   is down in the polls, but last month he had an 83 percent   
   approval rating among blacks. Some of the rest may echo West’s   
   views, but most are probably just disappointed that Obama hasn’t   
   accomplished more for their community and their country.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/26/counterfeit-pimp-   
   cornel-wests-vicious-attack-on-president-obama/?intcmp=obinsite   
      
       
      
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