Florida Poll: Majority Believe Race Relations Worse Since Obama Took Office

Townhall.com ^ | July 22, 2013 | Cortney O'Brien

[Kaslin]

While angry crowds rallied in 100 cities this weekend to protest George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the high-profile Trayvon Martin case, Floridians quietly proved they are satisfied with the trial’s results. A recent poll reveals their approval of the jury’s decision and, perhaps more interesting, their disapproval of the president’s handling of race relations since his inauguration.

Viewpoint Florida asked 900 people, most of whom were Democrats, for their opinions on Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict. A majority, 56 percent, believe the jury got it right and 63 percent felt Zimmerman should not have to face federal hate crime charges.

Also intriguing was Question #5, which read, “In your opinion, have race relations in the United States gotten better or worse since Barack Obama took office almost 5 years ago, or have they stayed about the same?” Fifty-three percent answered that race relations have deteriorated since Obama’s inauguration, with only 10 percent saying they’ve improved.

This disappointing perception is not limited to Florida. When Obama first took office, Americans were overwhelmingly optimistic about bridging the country’s racial divide. A Gallup poll taken the day after Obama secured the presidency in 2008 showed that 70 percent of Americans believed race relations would improve. But, two years later, these expectations had a stark meeting with reality when only 48 percent of blacks and 31 percent of whites said relations had positively progressed.

Of course, the poor state of race relations isn’t directly linked to the president, but the string of racially dividing comments he’s made since taking office certainly haven’t helped. For instance, let’s not forget the time he accused police in Cambridge, Massachusetts of acting “stupidly" for arresting a prominent black Harvard professor after a confrontation in his home. Although the cop in question acted a bit prematurely, Obama’s insensitive comment only encouraged racial hostilities. Likewise, Obama’s speeches regarding Trayvon Martin have heated rather than simmered these tensions. Last year, the president stated, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon,” which set off a firestorm from conservatives who charged he was being “divisive” and clearly taking sides. His recent speech regarding the case and verdict have also been criticized for again bringing race into the conversation, declaring, “Trayvon could have been me 35 years ago.” Instead of focusing on the facts and evidence presented by the defense and prosecution, Obama’s narrow focus on skin color caused him to jump to unfair conclusions.

So, with his subtle, yet clearly racial comments, it seems the president who many hoped would lead us to a “post-racial” America has only made us less color-blind.

[Netz]

In 2008 I knew he would be a Train wreck just based on what we saw and heard.

I never imagined it would be THIS bad though.

I never dreamed that Jimmy Carter could, in any way, shape or form, look like a better President but Obama pushed the envelope to new strains...

[DH]

To train a dog not to poop on the floor, you have to stick his nose in the pile each time he does it. The dog will soon learn that it is best to go outside rather than do it inside.

Well, race relations is being done in the same manner. However, IT’S NOT OUR POOP and IT’S NOT OUR HOUSE and we are getting really, really fed-up with having our nose pushed into the steaming pile of racial relations crap.

It’s Obama’s pile of steaming poop along with every other black, brown, yellow, red (and any other color other than white) self-generated problem by not assimilating into our society and bearing responsibility to improve their own lifestyle without sucking the financial blood of those who are responsible enough to obey the law and to have enough pride to actually place it upon themselves to go out and raise a traditional family and work to improve their lives financially and independently.

A pile of poop that we are not responsible for is laying on the floor in the oval office and it’s time to push Obama’s nose in it and then make every Democrat in congress to follow suit and then get McCain and every liberal RINO and liberal Republican in congress to do so too.

It’s their poop.....not ours!

[Kaslin]

I watched it, and I find that Bill O’Reilly’s “Talking Points” memos are for the most time very good. This one included

[FlingWingFlyer]

The Marxist DemocRATS’ plan is working exactly as planned.

[Max in Utah]

Those who run the racial grievance industry have done such a good job separating urban blacks from mainstream America that at this point whites view them as a hostile foreign presence.

That's pretty close to the way I feel. There's no point in trying to address their complaints since it just encourages more finger pointing back at us. F 'em.

[Spok]

Why makes the recognition of the patently obvious newsworthy? Is it so rare when the majority actually ‘gets it’?

[kearnyirish2]

“That’s pretty close to the way I feel. There’s no point in trying to address their complaints since it just encourages more finger pointing back at us. F ‘em.”

That’s the attitude of the whites and Hispanics in my area (on the frontier of the Newark welfare reservation); “white guilt” died here when the parents of many of my neighbors fled from Newark 40 years ago.