Velma Hart Fired After 2010 Elections: "I'm Exhausted!", Obama's Revenge??

Velma Hart: "Exhausted" Obama Supporter Loses Her Job After 2010 Elections


The political supporter who told President Obama that she was “exhausted” of defending him, becoming a voice for disappointed Americans this fall, has now become another casualty of the weak economy.

Velma Hart said she learned late last week that she had been laid off as chief financial officer of AmVets, a nonprofit veterans service organization based outside of Washington. Even when she addressed Mr. Obama in a CNBC town-hall-style meeting on the economy on Sept. 20, Ms. Hart said, she knew that the recent recession had put her job in danger through its dampening effect on donations, memberships and sponsorships at AmVets.

A spokesman for AmVets confirmed that Ms. Hart’s layoff was “an economic decision that had nothing to do with her job performance.” A White House spokeswoman had no comment.

“What’s in my heart is now, even more than I did before, I appreciate what millions of people who are in my condition now have been experiencing for the last two, three, four years,” Ms. Hart said at her home in Upper Marlboro, Md. “I don’t take lightly the fact that I know friends who’ve been looking for jobs for two years.”

“Could it take me two years to find a job?” Ms. Hart said. “Wow, that’s a scary proposition for me and my family.”

Ms. Hart said she continued to support Mr. Obama. And this Thanksgiving week, the wife and mother of two teenage girls is trying to remain upbeat.

“I want to focus on the positive and be optimistic,” she concluded. “And assume that somehow things will work out, that there’s an opportunity out there with Velma’s name on it that’s right around the corner.”


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Sources: CNBC, Huffington Post, NY Times, MSNBC, Rush Limbaugh, Youtube, Google Maps

Obama's Failure To Feel Voters' Pain Could Backfire In Nov. 2010

Obama, Empathy And The Midterms


MY homework for an hour long interview with President Obama last week began with reviews of his earlier speeches and interviews, and conversations with economists and political operatives. It ended around a dinner table.

That’s where, over salad and swordfish, former aides to another Democratic president, Bill Clinton, explored principal questions hanging over the coming midterm elections.

How can Mr. Obama do better at defending his record and his party’s candidates from the wrath of an unhappy electorate? Why doesn’t he receive more credit for winning passage of expanded health care coverage, new financial regulations and an economic stimulus package that many independent economists say helped end the Great Recession? Why can’t he get his message out?

Republicans argue that it’s because Mr. Obama has expanded the size of government and swelled federal deficits, with little to show for it, in the face of public resistance. But Democrats, who share the president’s philosophy, look for other explanations.

The former Clinton aides, like many pundits, turned to Mr. Obama’s cool, cerebral public style. Emotional connection was an aspect of leadership at which Mr. Clinton, for better or worse, excelled. If only Mr. Obama could more effectively demonstrate empathy, they argued, he might be able to convince the supporters he thrilled in 2008 that he’s still on their side.

That observation has gained wide acceptance in Washington. Mr. Obama may have played like a rock star in the campaign arenas of 2008, according to this view, but he displays a Spock-like emotional aridity in more intimate settings. In reality, however, a look back at previous midterm elections, especially during economic weakness, suggests that dollars and cents matter far more than hugs or lip-biting.

It’s not that the Obama administration isn’t striving to touch economically squeezed voters in more direct and personal ways. Mr. Obama risked criticism for breaching presidential decorum by appearing on “The View.” He has begun holding backyard meetings with suburban families.

Last week’s hourlong “town hall” on CNBC, which I moderated, was part of that effort.

But Mr. Obama declined to offer any Oprah-style emotional revelation when I asked whether his unusual background — as a biracial child who spent part of his youth overseas, then attended Ivy League schools — made it harder to connect with average Americans.

“When the unemployment rate is so high and people are having a tough time, it doesn’t matter if I was green, it doesn’t matter if I was purple,” he said matter-of-factly. “I think people would still be frustrated.”

Perhaps that was a moment missed, but history offers scant evidence to think so.

Despite President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s celebrated World War II record, voters didn’t “like Ike” enough to keep his fellow Republicans from losing 48 House seats amid the 1958 recession. For all his talents, Mr. Clinton watched his party lose control of both the House and Senate in the 1994 midterm election, in which economic weakness was one of many factors. “We have a controlled experiment,” observed Stan Greenberg, one of Mr. Clinton’s pollsters, downplaying the significance of Mr. Obama’s empathic skills. “Clearly Bill Clinton had the ability to connect emotionally. He got slaughtered in 1994.”

Moreover, the unemployment rate Mr. Clinton faced then never got higher than 6.6 percent — nowhere near the 9.6 percent rate Mr. Obama faces today. Late last year, notwithstanding his stimulus program, unemployment hit 10 percent for the first time since the 1982 recession, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

After studying their predecessors in similar circumstances, aides to Mr. Obama have come to see Mr. Reagan’s challenging midterm campaign that year as something of a model. “This one feels more like 1982 than 1994,” said Daniel Pfeiffer, the White House communications director.

Mr. Reagan, like Mr. Obama, had assumed immense economic challenges after succeeding a deeply unpopular president of the other party. After persuading Congress to cut tax rates and spending, Mr. Reagan beseeched voters to “stay the course,” and warned against a return to the policies of Jimmy Carter and tax-and-spend Congressional Democrats. He held Republican losses to 26 House seats — a level that, if repeated this year, would allow Democrats to retain control of the chamber.

It’s easy to forget how politically weak Mr. Reagan appeared for much of that year. According to Gallup, Mr. Obama’s current mid-40s approval ratings are comparable to or slightly higher than Mr. Reagan’s at a similar point in 1982 (as well as Mr. Clinton’s in 1994).

Mr. Obama aims to use President George W. Bush’s record in the same way Mr. Reagan used Mr. Carter’s. It was Mr. Bush and his Republican allies in Congress, he tells campaign audiences, who drove the economy “into a ditch.”

The velocity of contemporary media, not to mention its ferocity, may render that argument more difficult to make. In the ever-advancing news cycle, on cable television and the Internet, news tends to get old faster.

Thus, Mr. Pfeiffer asserted, in 1982 “Carter’s presidency seemed more recent than Bush’s presidency” does to voters this year. To compensate, he added, Mr. Obama and his aides began t contrast themselves with Republicans long before the traditional Labor Day campaign kickoff. In any event, the raucous and frenetic quality of the Information Age almost certainly hinders Mr. Obama more than his demeanor.

The town hall ended up carrying an emotional wallop anyway. But it didn’t come from my questions or Mr. Obama’s answers. Instead, it came from an audience member, Velma Hart, a black Obama supporter who works at a service organization for military veterans.

“I’m exhausted — exhausted of defending you, defending your administration,” Ms. Hart said, looking straight at the president. “I’ve been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people and I’m waiting, sir.”

Her riveting statement struck some observers as an embarrassing public relations setback for Mr. Obama. Jon Stewart, on Comedy Central’s “Daily Show,” called Ms. Hart an “Obama-sapping machine.”

White House aides hope that the exchange will have a different effect: to demonstrate that Mr. Obama isn’t isolated inside the presidential “bubble,” deaf to the suffering a weak economy has engendered. As it happens, that view of the hour’s emotional impact was endorsed by the master of the genre.

“I may be one of the few people that think it’s not bad that that lady said she was getting tired of defending him,” Mr. Clinton told Politico. “He needs to hear it.”


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Sources: CNBC, NY Times, Google Maps

Democrats Prepare For Huge Losses In Nov. 2010.... Progressive Or Centrist Agenda?

Democrats Are Currently Facing The Worse Election Come This November 2010 Since 1994!

Even Pres. Obama Is Preparing For Steep Losses In Both The U.S. House & Senate.

As It Stands National Democrat Leaders Aren't Sure If They Should Be Pushing A Progressive Agenda Or Centrist Agenda.

So Sad.

Following President Obama's Election They Had It Made But They Blew It By Celebrating Too Long.

Now They Face The Possibility Of Losing It All Again To Republicans.

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

Yes We (Black Voters) Do Need To Get Out & Vote But Sorry Folks I'm NOT Voting For A Lot Of The Same People I've Voted For In The Past.

I'm NOT! Why?

I Was Loyal To Them But After Being Elected, (Time & Time Again), Many Democrats Stuck It To Black Voters.

Especially Black Voters In North Carolina.

This Includes Black Legislators Who Also Stuck It To North Carolina's Black Voters!

I Don't Know About You But For Me The Days Of Voting For Token Blacks, Just To Have Blacks In Congress Or On The City Council, Are Over!

Its Time Democrats Realize They Don't Own The Black Vote!

Black Voters Own The Black Vote!

The American Black Community Doesn't Need Anymore Token Blacks In Public Office!

We Need REAL Representation!

Before I Return To The Polls This November I'm Doing My Research.

Going Forward Its About NOT Wasting My Precious Vote. Its About Being A More Intelligent Voter.

With God's Help That Is What I Plan To Do.

See You At The Polls.

Peace

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"I'm Exhausted Of Defending You".

"Is This My New Reality?"




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Sources: Charmeck.org, CNN, Daily Mail, The Hill, MSNBC, Youtube, Google Maps

Velma Hart Is My New "Shero"..."I'm Exhausted Of Defending You!"

"I'm Exhausted Of Defending You."

"Is This My New Reality?"






"I'm Exhausted Defending You" :Middle-class mother confronts Obama at meet-the-voters event"


President Barack Obama was left in no doubt as to the strength of ill-feeling among his most loyal supporters last night when he was openly attacked at a town hall meeting - with one woman telling him: "I’m exhausted defending you".

Staring intently at Mr Obama, Velma Hart told him she was ‘deeply disappointed’ and was losing patience waiting for him to deliver the change he promised.

In an impassioned rebuke the mother-of-two said she fears returning to the ‘hot dogs-and-beans era’ of her life because he is not helping the financially strapped middle class.

‘I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I'm an American veteran, and I'm one of your middle-class Americans. ‘And, quite frankly, "I'm exhausted", she said.

‘I'm exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for, and deeply disappointed with where we are right now.’



Her admonishment of the president came as new poll revealed 35% of voters would prefer to have George W Bush in the White House instead of Mr Obama, in spite of his chequered record in office.

Mr Obama has faced falling popularity and rising disgruntlement as his presidency stalls amid the economic crisis and what some see as indecisive leadership.

In a series of televised town hall meetings with voters, he is attempting to reconnect with the public but during one such event in Washington, he was ambushed by the audience.

Mrs Hart, who has two teenage daughters, laid into him for failing to do enough for people like her.

‘I have two children in private school. The financial recession has taken an enormous toll on my family,’ she said.

‘My husband and I have joked for years that we thought we were well beyond the hot dogs-and-beans era of our lives. But, quite frankly, it is starting to knock on our door and ring true that that might be where we are headed again.’

Mr Obama told Mrs Hart, the chief financial officer for a war veterans group, that people like her were the ‘bedrock of America’ and they should be supported.

‘I understand your frustration,’ he said. ‘My goal is not to convince you that everything is where it ought to be. It's not.’

Mr Obama also came under attack from audience member Ted Brassfield, 30, a recent law graduate, who said the optimism of the 2008 election was ‘dying away’.

‘There aren't jobs out there right now,’ he said and asked: ‘Is the American dream dead for me?’ ‘Absolutely not,’ Mr Obama replied.

The clashes came as former US president Bill Clinton admitted that voters were angry with Mr Obama but urged them not to give up hope.

‘I would say, ‘I know a lot of people are mad, and a lot of people are tired. Apathetic. And I respect that. Because we're not yet out of the hole we've got in,’’ he said.

Referring to the forthcoming mid-term elections, in which the Democrats could lose control of Congress, he added: ‘Give us two more years. Don't go back to the policies that dug the hole…If we don't do better, you can vote against us all...Vote against us all if it's not better.’

The ABC News poll did find that 35% of voters want Mr Bush back but 52% said they would rather have Mr Obama in charge.

The president still has some way to go before he becomes unpopular as Mr Bush whose approval ratings fell as low as 23% en route to thelowest average second-term ratings in modern polling history.



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Sources: CNN, Daily Mail, The Hill, Youtube, Google Maps