In Obama’s mind, all black legislators had to vote the same way. Why? Because of their race.

Obama's Long History of Political Racial Solidarity

by Charles C. Johnson 17 Aug 2012

Many people were taken in by Barack Obama's hopey-changey 2008 campaign. They thought that this was the real Barack Obama -- a man of optimism and vision. But the 2012 campaign has shown a side of Obama that the American public seems to be increasingly disturbed by. What they don't know is that it was 2008 that was the exception to the Obama campaign strategy; 2012's racially polarizing campaign is right up Obama's historical alley.

Back in 1999, Illinois State Senator Barack Obama made clear what he thought of black voters: they were all the same. Or, at the very least, they ought to all vote the same. In an interview with Chinta Strausberg of the Chicago Defender, he explained that the black legislative caucus wasn’t unified enough on economic development.

The then-state senator was talking about a plan for riverboat casinos, which he opposed because it “took care of some already wealthy people.” He hoped to shame black politicians who voted for the riverboat casinos, to make them “feel guilty enough about some of the things” they do “for these rich folks.”

“The [black] caucus is not functioning as it should,” Obama told WCGI’s Cliff Kelley in late May 1999. “The problem right now is that we don’t have a unified agenda that’s enforced back in the community
and is clearly articulated. Everybody tends to be lone agents in these situations.”

In Obama’s mind, all black legislators had to vote the same way. Why? Because of their race.
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