Two officials from the White House were in Atlanta Wednesday night for a rousing town hall meeting that at times resembled a campaign rally for President Barack Obama.
“The reason why we are here is for you to know that there are a lot of things going on that are helping our community,” said Michael Blake, director of African-American and Minority Business Outreach for the White House. “If you don’t fight with us, who will?”
Blake and Michael Strautmanis, Obama’s counselor for strategic engagement, joined Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in leading a gathering in the Atlanta Life Building that drew about 400 people -- mostly African-Americans who were looking for ways to further engage the White House.
Blake outlined how the Obama administration has made key fiscal investments that have benefited blacks in areas like jobs, education and housing.
“We need to make it plain for folks that a lot of things are happening now,” Blake said. “People have made it clear that they don’t want this man to be successful. When we walked in, 760,000 jobs were being lost a month. Now we are creating 200,000 jobs a month, so clearly something is working.”
Although the events were not related, last week the Rev. Al Sharpton and scholar Cornel West got into a heated debate on MSNBC’s "State of Black America" over Obama.
Sharpton blasted West for being overly critical. West in turn has argued that if blacks are not hard on Obama, they will have no voice to question the next president, who may not be black. The heated conversation has gone viral online.
Reed made his support of Obama clear during Wednesday's meeting in Atlanta. The mayor said he is prepared to travel the country to campaign for Obama, who last week announced his bid for re-election.
“Barack Obama is a transformational president,” Reed said. “Stop comparing him to the Almighty and start comparing him to the alternative.”
Strautmanis had to depart before Reed spoke, but said of the mayor, “It can't be overstated how much the president respects and believes in this young man.”
Reed told Blake he should use his visit to Atlanta to start recruiting people for Obama’s team.
“The country needs people from Atlanta to go all across America to defend the president of the United States and bring the game to these boys,” Reed said.
Strautmanis said the president is quite aware how important Atlanta is and Blake noted that it is not a coincidence that first lady Michell Obama is speaking at Spelman College’s commencement.
“He believes in you and believes that we are going to win the future. Not just with you, but because of you,” Strautmanis said. “As we continue to make these decisions we are going to do this the way we have done it before, with you leading the charge.”
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