Obama Election Watch

Many white voters fear that an African-American president will promote black progress at the expense of struggling whites. In stating his vision for fairness and opportunity for all groups, Obama could now use the convention to calm white apprehensions over a black man holding the massive executive powers of the United States.

On Monday, July 14, Barack Obama will address the NAACP annual convention in Cincinnati. John McCain will address the gathering two days later.

Some commentators believe that Obama will use the NAACP platform to make his so-called Bill Cosby lecture to African Americans. This message, which Obama has delivered before, calls for young African Americans to stay in school, shun gang activity, and to avoid drugs. It urges black men to take responsibility for the children they father that they may build stronger families in the black community.

But this lecture to young blacks seems unwise when the audience at the NAACP convention will be made up mostly of older blacks for whom the “Cosby” message is neither intended nor relevant. To be said, too, Obama should not risk offending a core group that is in large measure responsible for his nomination to head the Democratic ticket.

One thing is certain. Unlike all presidential candidates before him, Obama’s address will not carry the standard litany on how African Americans will benefit from his administration. A sound plan, we suggest, would be that he use this important forum to express his program of outreach to all Americans.

For the past eight years, 300 million Americans have stood by while a right-wing executive body has pursued policies that without exception have favored the rich and powerful. Now this very large and visible audience in Cincinnati offers Obama an opportunity to present a compelling case for a new presidency based on fairness, empathy, and caring rather than self-interest and greed.

The Obama Cincinnati address could include some or all of the following points, all of which would contribute to restoring fairness and opportunity in our nation:

• Fairness for servicemen and women who risked their lives for our country in Iraq and Afghanistan. This assures returning veterans that they will receive the very best in medical care as well as job training and funds for education once they leave the armed services.

• Fairness for the millions of Hispanic children who are trapped in dilapidated and disgracefully nonperforming schools in Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, San Antonio, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, and other American cities.

• Fairness, aid, and new opportunities for families burdened by generations of poverty in the Appalachian areas of our country. Voters can be reminded that there are far more white poor people in the United States than there are poor blacks and Hispanics.

• Fairness in the form of relief for the tens of thousands of hard-working Americans who are about to lose their homes to foreclosure.

• Fairness to senior citizens who have worked hard all their lives and now find that because of disappearing pensions, a sinking economy, and a collapsing stock market they cannot afford to pay for prescription drugs.

• Fairness for gay and lesbian citizens who today are denied equal rights and benefits from the government or their employers.

• Fairness for low-income teenagers of all races who need help to pay for the rising cost of a college education.

• Fairness in aid and job training for tens of millions of industrial workers whose jobs have been outsourced to workers in foreign countries.

• Fairness in the form of tax relief for middle-income taxpayers who have borne the burden of eight years of deep tax cuts for the wealthy.

• Fairness for nature lovers, hunters, fishers, birders, outdoor enthusiasts, and others who love our planet but have seen eight years of government policies that favor developers who exploit our natural resources.