As president, Obama vows to address rights

Philly.com
Monday, Feb 2, 9:41 AM
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst

President Obama proposes an aggressive civil rights agenda on his Web site, whitehouse.gov.
Obama pledges to end sex- and race-based pay disparities, push through the fair pay and employment nondiscrimination acts, harshly penalize voter fraud, dump race-tinged drug-sentencing disparities, and outlaw racial profiling at the federal level while providing financial incentives to local and state police to ban the practice. The president also promises to markedly expand hate-crime prosecutions.
None of these things is really new. Obama pledged swift action on these issues on his campaign Web site. Yet they were virtually nonexistent as campaign talking points.
Candidate Obama's reluctance to talk much about his civil rights agenda was a calculated political move. Such talk has been taboo in all recent presidential races, seeping into debates only when a candidate snatches the issue to race-bait opponents or assure middle-class voters that he will not tilt toward or pander to minorities.
In 1988, George H.W. Bush slammed Michael Dukakis as being soft on crime for allegedly letting black convict Willie Horton roam free to commit rape and murder. Bill Clinton used Jesse Jackson as a foil to assure middle-class voters that he would fight just as hard as conservative Republicans to protect their interests. In one 2000 debate, George W. Bush and Al Gore clashed over affirmative action, but both distanced themselves from the issue.
Obama knew that talk of civil rights invariably translates to talk of race, a minefield that could blow up at any time and mortally wound his candidacy. A good example was the endless TV sound loop of inflammatory tirades by Obama's former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, during the primary battle with Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama's campaign was initially shell-shocked but recovered. However, the flap guaranteed that race would not be uttered for the rest of the campaign.
Candidate Obama had to observe the rules of political expediency to win the White House, but President Obama's political capital account is bulging. His public approval is sky high, and he has the bully pulpit. Not only can he talk about civil rights without risk of backlash, but he can act as well.

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