Sunday, February 7, 2010 ? Page 4-B

Disheartened whites give GOP victories

Zack Burgess Tribune Correspondent It takes a lot to be brave. The realty is this, one has to stand on princial alone, which is not easy for the verage man or woman ? let alone person in power, a human who has he responsibility of an entire nation n his hands. Last year, President Barack bama ran on hope, which galvaized a group of people in this counry, who you would never think of oting a Black man into office ? hites in America. But it happened. et, just as fast as it happened, it has issipated, as the president?s pproval rating have dropped below 0 percent, which leaves one to ask has the president lost the coveted hite vote in this country? As with any Black elected official, he president ? despite his coalition uilding and focus on ?post-racial? econciliation ? will naturally truggle under the microscopic crutiny of the white electorate. This s a natural, knee-jerk reaction from he dominant white demographic as t gets accustomed to Blacks in posiions of authority. We see it in the orkplace and beyond. ?Obama has risen to the top of a ealm that is perceived as an excluive country club,? said Charles D. llison, author and director of the enter for New Politics and Policy. ?On one hand, the drop in popuarity has nothing to do with race, ut more to do with soured expectaions. His administration, to this oint, has failed to manage the Dr. Conrad Murray

Jobs

From Page 1A last month. Such adjustments are made each onth and are especially large in January because of heavy seasonal changes in hiring, according to Tom Nardone, an assistant commissioner at the department?s Bureau of Labor Statistics. A separate survey of businesses found that employers shed 20,000 jobs last month. That was worse than the 5,000 gain analysts expected. January?s report did offer hope that employers may start adding jobs soon. Excluding the beleaguered construction industry, the private sector as a whole added 63,000 positions. John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo, said the drop in the nemployment rate wasn?t a result f a shrinking labor force, which as held the rate down in previous onths. ?It simply was, people found In this Jan. 27 photo, Cook County early voters cast their ballots at polling place in Chicago. When President Barack Obama swept into the White House, he did so with the help of the most diverse electorate in American history, as record numbers of minority and young voters surged to the polls to support him. But on the eve of the first statewide election in Illinois since its native son?s historic victory, that political energy seems to have largely evaporated. ? PHOTO/M. SPENCER GREEN euphoria it built in 2008. Much of that, to his strategic campaign advantage, was due to the unpopularity of President George W. Bush. ?Hence, he?s faced with revolting progressives on his left and vengeful conservatives on his right. But, on the other hand, Obama?s presence in the White House creates both racial and political tension. Many whites ? most whites ? are still coping with this new reality, with older generation whites and baby boomers finding it particularly hard. Linda Deutsch LOS ANGELES ? Michael Jackson?s doctor wanted to seek his day in court Friday by surrendering before being charged in the singer?s death, but prosecutors upstaged the plan by announcing that no case would be filed until next week. District attorney?s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons released the plan less than two hours before Dr. Conrad Murray and his attorneys were going to show up at an airport-area courthouse in an effort to force the prosecution?s hand while avoiding having the physician arrested and handcufffed. Gibbons? statement did not men- jobs,? he said. The report is ?consistent with continued improvement in the labor market.? But Paul Ashworth, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that the economy has been growing for six months, yet company payrolls are still shrinking. ?Based on what we?ve seen so far, we think it is fair to characterize this as another jobless recovery,? Ashworth said. Left behind are people like Aimee Brittain, 31, who said she can?t get employers to return her calls. She?s hunting for work as a secretary after being laid off from a commercial real estate firm near her home in suburban Atlanta. ?I?m fighting against people with master?s degrees for receptionist jobs,? Brittain said. ?I can?t compete.? President Barack Obama said the unexpected drop in the unemployment rate was ?cause for hope but not celebration.? Speaking at a small business in a Washington suburb, Obama said the figures show modest progress but cau- And much of that tension is regional, with whites in the South and Midwest ? where you find pockets of reliably Republican voting districts.? Obama became the first Democrat since Jimmy Carter in 1976 to win a popular vote majority but no Democrat since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 has won the majority of the white electorate. If Republicans will study the recent returns from the senatorial race in Massachusetts, then review tion Murray, but said information on charges will be released after the case is filed on Monday. A news conference that had been scheduled Friday afternoon by Murray?s defense team in lieu of his surrender was canceled an hour before it was to begin at a park near the courthouse. Murray?s attorneys have said they expect the Texas cardiologist to be charged with involuntary manslaughter for administering drugs to Jackson before his death on June 25. It was not immediately clear if Murray would return to Houston, where he has a practice, or remain in Los Angeles through the weekend. tioned that the data will continue to fluctuate for months. Seasonal adjustments tend to have a big effect on the January employment data. Retailers typically lay off temporary employees who were hired over the holidays. Construction companies temporarily cut jobs as work stops due to cold weather. The data are adjusted to account for such factors so the figures will illustrate underlying trends. The department uses separate surveys of households and businesses to measure employment. The two differed this month. Households showed a large jump in employment. But businesses reported a 20,000 drop in jobs. Over time, the two surveys generally track each other. The household survey is more volatile than the business survey, Nardone said, and often shows large swings. In December, it reported a 589,000 drop in employment. The manufacturing sector added jobs for the first time since January the returns from gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, light will fall upon the path to victory over Barack Obama in 2012. Obama defeated John McCain by winning the Black vote 24 to one, the Hispanic vote two to one and taking a larger share of the white vote ? 44 percent ? than did John Kerry or Al Gore. As the white vote was threefourths of the national turnout, Obama coasted to victory. Now consider Massachusetts. In the 2008 election, no less than 79 percent of the voters were white, and Obama carried them by 20 points, winning the state 62 to 36. How did Scott Brown turn that 26-point deficit into a six-point victory? By winning the white vote as massively as did Obama. While there are no exit polls to prove it, we do have exit polls from Virginia and New Jersey, which tend to corroborate it. Bob McDonnell won the Virginia governor?s race by 17, while McCain lost Virginia by six. As McDonnell did equally poorly with African- Americans, losing the Black vote 90 to 9 percent, while McCain?s lost it 92 to eight, what explains his Virginia landslide? The white vote does. McDonnell won Virginia?s white vote 68 to 32, though his opponent was a downstate Democrat more conservative than the Northern Virginia candidates he beat in the primary. In New Jersey, it was the same story. McCain won 8 percent of the Black vote. Gov. Chris Christie won 8 Lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff spoke Thursday with prosecutor David Walgren and was told to be at the courthouse at 1:30 p.m. PST Friday, only to have the county sheriff?s department, which handles court security, publicly say hours later that it was called off, defense team spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik said earlier Friday. ?What does it take to surrender in L.A.?? Sevcik said. ?I feel like Ed should show up in the courthouse with a big white flag.? Walgren declined to comment Friday. The legal gamesmanship over Murray?s surrender followed several days of negotiations in which his 2007. Its gain of 11,000 jobs was the most since April 2006. Retailers added 42,100 jobs, the most since November 2007, before the recession began. Temporary help services gained 52,000 jobs, its fourth month of gains. That could signal future hiring, as employers usually hire temp workers before permanent ones. The average work week increased to 33.3 hours, from 33.2. That indicates employers are increasing hours for their current workers, a step that usually precedes new hiring. The number of part-time workers who want full-time work, but can?t find it, fell by almost 1 million. That lowered the ?underemployment? rate, which also includes discouraged workers, to 16.5 percent from 17.3 percent. That could be a result of some part-timers moving to full-time work, economists said. The federal government has begun hiring workers to perform the 2010 census, which added 9,000 jobs. That process could add as many as 1.2 million jobs this year, percent of the Black vote. How did Christie turn a McCain loss of New Jersey by 16 points into a five-point victory? Again, it was the white vote. McCain won the white vote in New Jersey 50 to 49, but Christie won the white vote 59 to 34, almost two to one. Republicans have won three major races ? two of them upsets and one a Massachusetts miracle ? because the white share of the vote in all three rose as a share of the total vote, and Republicans swept the white vote in Reagan-like landslides. What explains the white surge to the GOP? ?Obama?s approval ratings have gone down predictably because of one factor ? unemployment. Race does not play a role here. His numbers will recover accordingly as unemployment eases during the recovery. And it will,? said Jeff Schweitzer assistant director of the OSTP for the Clinton administration. ?Actually, his standing in the Black community has declined as well. Many believe he has not done enough to support civil rights, and many are disappointed that more jobs have not been created within the Black community. This also speaks to the first question, adding to the idea that race is only incidental to Obama?s approval rating, either high or low.? Indeed, unemployment has dogged Obama. According to Gallup, one of America?s premier polling organizations, Obama?s approval rating lawyers tried to arrange with prosecutors for the doctor to surrender for booking and arraignment. Those plans were derailed by haggling between prosecutors and law enforcement officials over whether the physician should be arrested or allowed to turn himself in. ?It seems ridiculous to us that it?s been dragging on this long,? Sevcik said. ?We?ve been here all week long, for God?s sake. What?s the holdup? To us this is showmanship and we are just done.? In the seven months since Jackson?s sudden death at 50 while rehearsing for a major comeback concert series, Murray has largely though they will all be temporary. But job cuts at the state and local levels canceled out those gains, as government employment fell by 8,000. Most of the 75,000 jobs lost in the construction industry came from the commercial building sector, the department said. Construction lost more jobs than other sector. Still, jobs remain scarce even as the economy is recovering. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation?s output, has risen for two straight quarters. GDP rose by 5.7 percent in the October- December quarter, the fastest pace in six years. Many economists say businesses are reluctant to add workers because it?s not clear whether the recovery will continue once government stimulus measures, such as tax credits for some buyers, fade this spring. The debate over health-care reform and the scheduled expiration of some Bush administration tax cuts at the end of this year may also hold back some employers, many economists said. among whites dropped from 61 percent in February 2009 to 39 percent in November. Most of that slippage is among Republicans, conservatives and Independents. Obama?s approval rating among white Democrats dropped just slightly during that period from 88 to 82 percent, but inside those numbers is one troubling fact. White Democrats, by a count of 87 percent to 76 percent, accounted greatly to what little slippage there was overall. There is some evidence that the late summer town hall eruptions, which centered on the health-care debate, also contributed to Obama?s precarious hold on the white electorate. ?While Obama has a lock on African-Americans,? veteran Republican pollster Neil Newhouse told reporters the first week of September. ?His support among white voters seems to be almost in a free fall.? As Obama heads into his second year in the White House, the looming question is how can he regain the support of white voters he had just months ago? There are predictably differing arguments from the right and the left but the one thing that most experts say he needs to do is produce. It was his pragmatism that drew that corner of the electorate and solving problems is what they expect. The Associated Press Contributed to this report.

Jackson?s doctor to be charged on Monday

Allen

From Page 1A yellow fever epidemic and other things during the Revolutionary War. It gives us an opportunity to highlight that and to lift him up.? Born as a slave to Benjamin Chew, owner of the Cliveden Estate in Germantown, Allen later purchased his freedom from a Delaware slaveowner who had bought him as a child. He went on to distinguish himself as more than just a church leader. Allen hauled salt for the Continental Army during the American Revolution; he acted bravely in caring for the dying and burying the dead in the yellow fever outbreak of 1793; he and Absalom Jones were the holders of the first copyright by African Americans when they published their rebuttal to Matthew Carey?s account of that incident. He was a successful entrepreneur, claiming George Washington?s executive mansion at Sixth and Market streets as a customer of his chimney-sweep business. Allen opened his doors to those fleeing slavery on the Underground Railroad as an abolitionist; he organized one of the first major protests by African Americans when 3,000 people gathered at Mother Bethel Church to denounce the American Colonization Society?s plan to send free Blacks to Africa, and he had an active correspondence with the president of Haiti to the point that he sent missionaries to that nation in the 1820s to help organize that land. Norris also shared his thoughts as to why the memory of Allen has survived long after his death. ?I think the magnitude of his work, the importance of that work; not only as a religious leader; many times, people have difficulty getting past that aspect of his life when there is so much more that he did. His leadership in education, his leadership in the economic development and stability of our people, his involvement with the early insurance concepts, there?s just so much that he did, and I think that?s the reason he is revered and his life is so important,? he said. ?Even now, as we are dealing with the Haiti crisis, we are reminded during his lifetime, our first stayed out of view. His lawyers have spoken very little. And prosecutors and investigators have been tightlipped. Sevcik said prosecutors told Murray on Thursday he?d face one count of involuntary manslaughter. Murray became the focus of the probe into Jackson?s death shortly after he called paramedics on June 25 to report that the singer wasn?t breathing. Murray told police he gave the Jackson a powerful anesthetic and other sedatives that were blamed on his death. The doctor maintains nothing he gave Jackson should have killed him but sees a charge as inevitable, Sevcik said. ? (AP) ?Until some of these uncertainties from Washington get cleared up, businesses, particularly small businesses, are going to be loath to do any additional hiring,? said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Investments. High unemployment could restrain consumer spending, which has led most recoveries in the past. That?s why many economists think the current rebound will be weak. Public concern about persistent unemployment has forced President Barack Obama and members of Congress to shift their attention to jobs and the economy and away from health-care reform. The Senate will begin working Monday on legislation that would give companies a tax break for hiring new workers, Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday. The budget plan Obama released this week projects unemployment will still be very high ? 9.8 percent ? by the end of this year. ? (AP) AP Business Writer Christopher Leonard in St. Louis contributed to this report. involvement outside of the continental United States as a church was with Richard Allen sending representatives to Haiti not only for religious purposes but also for outreach and for providing relief and assistance to those people.? Other notable tributes will include a First Episcopal District Founder?s Day worship service on Feb. 11 at First District Headquarters, 3801 Market St. and a free concert at Mother Bethel. A 134-yearold bust of Allen, once displayed at the United States Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia, but was virtually ?lost? for 100 years will return to the city. Tyler also announced a reciprocal visitation. ?In October of last year, Mother Bethel shut down our 11 o clock service and we went to worship at St. George?s, the church from which we had our birth and genesis. In a way to return that token that we did for them, St. George?s is going to close their Sunday morning services on the 14th and come worship with us, to help us make this celebration complete,? he said. For a complete listing of Allen events, visit www.motherbethel.org.

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