Well i would say more than upset…tsk..tsk..
It all began when the Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama turned down an invitation from Tavis Smiley to attend the State of the Black Union to be held on feb 23, 2008 in New Orleans.
Obama sent Smiley an open letter stating that because of his hectic campaign schedule, he would not be able to make the event and instead offered to have his wife, Michelle Obama attend on his behalf.
Not only does Smiley deny that Michelle was ever offered as a substitute but he reckons that even if she were offered he would have ‘respectively’ declined “just as we would have declined had Hillary Clinton offered Bill Clinton, had John McCain offered Cindy McCain, had Mike Huckabee suggested Janet Huckabee”. Listen here.
Michelle Obama responded to his comments when she appeared on the Michael Baisden Show .
Prior to this issue, Smiley did a commentary on Obama for the Tom Joyner Morning show telling black people to take a ‘pause at the phenomenon that is Barack Obama’. He claimed to offer this advice about all candidates but he spent the whole commentary on just Barack. He goes on to say that Obama should be accountable to black people for more and should make black people aware of what he seeks to deliver. Hello? where have you been? hasn’t he already done that? and why does Smiley assume that black people are not smart enough to research this stuff? And why does he have a problem with Barack transcending race?
Bottom line, Smiley is not balanced and has been going at Obama from the start and Obama’s inability to attend this event was the straw that broke the camels back
My conclusion - Smiley is the crab in the barrel - he is totally envious of Obama’s success and pretty soon he will be lining up behind Bob Johnson,Joe Reed et al for Hillary.
Speaking of Hillary, she is the only presidential candidate that has accepted Smiley’s invitation to attend this event. After the failed race baiting tactics in South Carolina, she most certainly needs black votes - so of course she is going.
