Fewer see Obama advancing racial ties

Related News

Related Topics

President Obama makes a statement at the White House, January 15, 2010. REUTERS/Larry Downing

President Obama makes a statement at the White House, January 15, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:24am EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fewer Americans believe the presidency of Barack Obama, the first African American elected to the White House, has helped advance race relations compared with a year ago, a Washington Post-ABC News poll suggests.

The poll, published on the U.S. holiday commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., found 41 percent now say Obama's presidency has helped race relations, compared with 58 percent on the eve of Obama's inauguration a year ago who said his presidency would help race relations.

The decline was the sharpest among African Americans, with 51 percent now saying Obama has helped advance race relations, compared with 75 percent who, last January, said they expected Obama's presidency to help.

The poll was conducted by telephone from January 12 to 15 among a random sample of 1,083 adults, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. For the 153 African Americans polled, the margin of error was 8 percentage points.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; editing by Todd Eastham)
Politics
Barack Obama
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (32)
vintel7 wrote:
Duh….I wonder why….and who cares what the masses think…they are always wrong. It would be political suicide for President Obama to start pushing racial issues. The Republican would attack him for showing “special favor” to African Americans. That’s a no brainer.

Jan 19, 2010 9:03am EST  --  Report as abuse
Lilathe wrote:
Obama is 50% white and 50% black. I don’t understand why everyone keeps only talking about the black part of his heritage. Wouldn’t the proper term be “mixed”? Why wouldn’t it be just as politically correct to call him white as it is to call him black?
Doesn’t his mother count for anything? Or is she just so much useless baggage to his heritage?

Jan 19, 2010 9:34am EST  --  Report as abuse
StatsDave wrote:
yep, because the masses don’t equal the voting public or anything.(yea…right) The president isn’t supposed to PUSH anything he is supposed to serve the wishes of the general “masses” who voted him in office. Anyway, if he doesn’t then he’ll just get voted out in favor of someone who might. That is what this whole scramble is about, the Dems are afraid that they may have overstepped the public wish and that the GOP will replace them, but the characteristic All-Or-Nothing views of hard wingers will be what hurts them most.

Jan 19, 2010 9:58am EST  --  Report as abuse
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.
See All Comments »