Obama Throws Justice Thomas Under the Bus

The question was simple enough: Which existing Supreme Court Justice would you not have nominated? He could have simply answered Justice Scalia, Alito and perhaps Roberts who he voted against. Obama went much further and black conservatives are going crazy.

Armstrong Williams, who has toyed with the idea of voting for Obama, was livid. In his column on The Hill he writes:

This sad underbelly to liberalism, namely liberal racism, had gone largely unchallenged by the black political elite until they themselves felt the sting recently as the liberal icons the Clintons played on racial stereotypes to try and destroy Obama in the Democratic primaries.

Later, he also notes:

On the other hand, Obama has revealed a tendency in his character to bully those he views as weak or isolated. When he spoke of Justices Scalia and Roberts, he was careful to acknowledge their intellectual superiority, and distinguished himself from them merely on the basis of their philosophy. Obama showed, in doing this, a deference to those he thinks possess the power in this country (namely whites), and a total disrespect for the path that was paved by the likes of Thomas and other black conservatives in championing character, independence of thought, and merit over race as a prerequisite for leadership. This character flaw is going to make it virtually impossible for me to continue to hold out hope for Obama's presidential aspirations

While I do think that Obama could have been more artful in his comments regarding Justice Thomas, he was definitely sending a message to Black conservatives. After all these years of supporting the GOP, Obama may have been saying that black conservatives will not get a seat at the table and there will be no preferred access. There is really no blowback politically from this, most of these black conservatives never planned to vote for Obama, thus he figured that he had nothing to lose.

Armstrong is being a bit disingenuous by raising the spectre of racism. For years, Armstrong and other fellow black conservatives have been willing participants in this race baiting and divisive political game promoted by the GOP, but now they see fit to scream racism when Obama uses Thomas as a scapegoat. Could he have been more artful? Perhaps, but what does he have to lose here? A few votes and money from a small band of black conservatives? Obama probably felt that it was a safe gamble and a good bet while sending a strong message that their services will not be needed.

Here is the video:

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