Black Woman Confronts Obama with Uncomfortable Truths

“I’m exhausted of defending you,” said Velma Hart to President Obama, live on television. The helplessness was almost painful to watch.

Politicians as talented as Barack Obama fear neither well-choreographed campaigns, the catcalls of protesters, nor rotten eggs thrown at them, and certainly not the polemics of the opposition. What they do fear, however, is that moment of truth that exposes them in front of live cameras.

In a recent public meeting in Washington, Velma Hart put the president on the spot and asked for the truth. Her criticism was intelligent, respectful, passionate as well as compassionate, and was neither vain nor self-pitying. Her remarks were all the more powerful because she is a black wife and mother, as well as being a successful manager. As she spoke, millions of equally well-meaning voters across the country must have groaned, “She’s so right!”

She began by saying she felt privileged to speak as a member of the middle class who stood to lose her home and her job in the worst recession in 70 years. Obama nodded knowingly. But Velma Hart continued, saying, “I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for.”

Obama’s train thus derailed, the broad grin that came across his face could only mean he was about to change the subject. Velma Hart continued, “I’m deeply disappointed with where we are right now. I have been told that I voted for a man who said he was going to change things in a meaningful way for the middle class. I’m one of those people, and I’m waiting, sir. I’m waiting. I don’t feel it yet. And I thought, while it wouldn’t be in great measure, I would feel it in some small measure.”

Obama’s expression froze for some time and his eyes belied his grin, which had meantime shrunk to an engaging smile: Lies. He hesitated and fumbled for words. For an instant, we thought he might simply say, “You’re absolutely right. I’m very sorry to have disappointed you.”

But then the president of the United States came to his senses and snapped out of it. He couldn’t bring himself to thank Velma Hart, but he praised her ten years’ military service and her service as a manager in a veteran’s service organization. Which, he noted, combined with her husband’s income, had enabled them to send their two daughters to a private school. He remarked that she had shown an exemplary sense of responsibility.

What followed then was a mechanical regurgitation of his merits and good intentions. A couple of attempts at humor (“I’m not saying once in a while you don’t want to get a new pair of shoes.”) fell flat.

Obama’s helplessness was almost painful to watch. Velma Hart wasn’t poor, not down and out. She was a faithful but disappointed citizen who had voted for Obama. But President Obama couldn’t grasp what candidate-Obama had understood better than anyone else. Hart later remarked, “I wanted him to say, ‘No, this is not your new reality.’ I wanted him to say, ‘I don’t know what the new reality is. We are still working through a lot of stuff. This is a transitional period. It is going to be hard now. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We are going to get to the light, but it’s going to take some time. Right now, you are expecting too much from me.’”

Hart joked: “If he had said that, I would have run up and hugged him and run the risk of being shot by the Secret Service.”