Racism or not, Obama still has a job to do

Former US President Jimmy Carter has attracted a lot of criticism with his comment this week that much of the opposition against President Barack Obama’s healthcare plan is “racist.’’

Mr Carter’s comments arose out of the heat generated by a Republican Congressman’s outburst as President Obama made a speech defending the health plan.

Mr Joe Wilson shouted “You Lie’’ in reaction to President Obama’s claim that his plan would not benefit illegal migrants.

At the same function in Washington DC, many Republican lawmakers loudly laughed and booed when President Obama said that he is yet to release other details on his plan to reform the US healthcare system.

Mr Wilson immediately apologised for his comments and the House of Representatives later voted to denounce his conduct.

And as the issue appeared to die off, Mr Carter said at a town hall meeting this week: “I think people are guilty of that kind of personal attack against Obama.

They have been influenced to a major degree by a belief that he should not be president because he happens to be African-American.”

Mr Carter, just about to turn 85, appears to have hit a raw nerve given the response from the White House.

Mr Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman, said: “The president does not believe that that criticism comes based on the colour of his skin.”

As a former president, Mr Carter knows better and to show that he was serious about his comments, Mr Carter repeated the same statement in a TV interview with NBC. “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity towards President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”

Mr Carter’s comments did not come out of the blue. Last month, a pastor at a Baptist church in the state of Arizona gave a sermon titled: “Why I hate Barack Obama”.

Pastor Steven Anderson told the congregation that he prays that President Obama should melt like a snail. “Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow,” he added.

Meanwhile, what the president needs to realise is that, whether there is racism or not, he still has a job to do. He needs to recall that when George W. Bush left the White House on January 20 this year, his poll ratings were in the lower 20s, but that was after two terms.

The latest Harris Poll gives President Obama, whose father was Kenyan, an approval rating of 49 per cent down from 51 per cent in August.

The president may not have expected the kind of opposition to his plan that aims at giving the state a role in the provision of health care insurance. Some opponents have even accused President Obama of trying to introduce Socialism in the US.

One may wonder why the bitterness over what is a very noble idea by a Democratic President who won with a landslide and spelt out his plan clearly in his campaign.

The answer could be that there is a lot of negative campaigning by lobbying firms hired by health insurance companies who feel they will lose business should Congress pass Obama’s plan.

Last weekend, there was a massive protest close to the White House against President Obama’s health plan. Some of the crowds that staged the march displayed clearly racist posters depicting the president as a joker.

And at rallies staged by the president to campaign for the plan, hecklers sprang up trying to shout him down and in one case in Arizona, a protester turned up with a gun.

Mr Obama is trying what Bill Clinton tried in 1993 and failed. Even then, he fell victim to wealthy lobby groups that call the shots in Washington.

Currently, Obama’s Achilles heel is the health plan. He needs to abandon it or negotiate with its opponents on a trade-off that would give both sides a piece of the cake.

The scheme is like a huge guillotine hanging over his head, making governing a difficult task.

Henry Owuor is Diplomatic and Foreign Writer, Daily Nation