But there's never any real meat
to them:
Yet Obama maintained a distant relationship with the caucus when he was
its only Senate member from 2004-08. That dynamic was on display early
in the Democratic presidential primary, when many senior caucus members
initially backed Hillary Rodham Clinton even as Obama quickly became viable as a candidate.
Really? CBC members actually acting like politicians is evidence of "distance?" A
quick note of recall:
As America prepares for a string of primaries and caucuses to determine
who will be its next Democratic and Republican nominees for president,
the majority of the 42-member Congressional Black Caucus who have
chosen to endorse in the race is split 15-15 between CBC member
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
I can't see why that would have been shocking. Put differently, how many members of the CBC would have supported Jesse Jackson Jr. or Harold Ford, had they been running against Clinton? What is the specific evidence of this distance between Obama and the CBC? Look I have my issues with the Caucus (especially over backing Bobby Rush in the Burris flap), but where is the story here? Where is the actual beef?
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
If you want to see something more ridiculous, here's Politico's Jonathan Martin noted that "a key constituency over which Barack Obama has considerable sway also opposed the bill" after the failed House vote on TARP in September. He continues:
"More members of the Congressional Black Caucus, whose heavily black districts include many of Obama's most ardent supporters, opposed the bill than supported it.
Few of these members are in, or will ever have, tough re-elections.
Obama, it seems, could have helped deliver some of these votes if he had been more invested in the bill."
I'm not one to cry racism more or less ever but it blew my mind at the time that he said this without anyone taking note of it. The thought that CBC members (who, by the way, opposed the bill at the same rate as Hispanic caucus members) should be disproportionately swayed by Obama is ridiculous:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/Most_CBC_members_bailout_bill.html
Didn't several of them end up switching their vote in the end for TARP? IIRC, Donna Edwards was one of those such votes at the request of Obama and I think that she really didn't want to because it was such a bad bill.
I think there is a mix of jealousy and true concern about Obama's policies in regards to his relationship with the CBC.
"In our top story tonight, black politicians actually put their careers and personal interests ahead of blindly supporting someone else who is also black. Meanwhile Chris Matthews asks, 'Does this mean black people are actual...you know...people? I mean do they have feelings and thoughts and a consciousness that exists apart from the amount of melatonin in their skin? David Gregory, is Barack Obama's candidacy viable if black people aren't fully conscious of their race with every breath?'"
I'm bagging on Chris Matthews a bit here but tell me you couldn't hear him say it nearly verbatim.
Don't you think the narrative of this "conflict" fits rather neatly into the narrative of Gwen Iffill's book? Which is to say that even if the CBC wouldn't have supported anyone vs. Clinton "why" is a valid question that just hasn't gotten enough press.
Coates you know what the deal is. Black on Black crime sells whether on the streets or in Congress. Its amazing to the media when black folks don't automatically back other black folks. They create the situation to infer that we SHOULD have group think but then if we in fact do support a black person en masse like we did for the Presidential election the media infers it was all because of race. It is what it is.
@Jamilah
I don't know how much follow through there will be, but the bill eventually passed by the House includes enabling Treasury to modify existing loans and support the foreclosure avoidance program HOPE for Homeowners. This wasn't in the original bill.
I believe the big things the CBC/CHC wanted were foreclosure assistance and money for community organizations assisting people facing the same; one of those was in the bill that more CBC members voted for (at least Edwards switched, I didn't check everybody). Something of a compromise there.
Add to this that Obama's style is pretty cool, cerebral and independent. Which will make him seem like he's "keeping his distance" from any particular group.
If Bush had been black, he'd have given everybody in the CBC funny nicknames. Obama doesn't do that because he's distant and not a regular guy.
A non starter if there ever was one.
k1
ryanculver.blogspot.com
@Zach: I took note of that foolishness. Sadly, my outrage was limited to the comment section of that blog. I, like you, don't like to jump on the racism bandwagon whenever it comes to town, but J Martin, consistently in my mind, made some questionable posts during the campaign season that went unchecked. Another one that made me want to kick a cat was when he said that McCain "couldn't catch a break" after it was revealed that the supporter girl lied about being attacked. Yes, it wasn't Black men that couldn't catch a break for always being identified to some make believe crime, it was McCain that really got the short end stick out of that situation. I don't know why his editors (do people who blog have to submit their stuff to editors?) let him get away with that story, or the one you referenced. Despite what many may think, Black people do not automatically have an undying loyalty to each other--or in Obama's case, some magic charm dust that would have made the CBC members change their mind. Sheesh.
Does this even really matter?
Last time I checked, black people weren't a hive mind with a singular set of opinions and lifestyles. So what if the CBC and Obama aren't in sync?