Mr. President, Cousin Pookie Needs a Job

When President Barack Obama traveled to Virginia to try to resuscitate the deplorable campaign of gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, he invoked a familiar nickname in black America: Cousin Pookie.

All kinds of people have nicknames, whether they are white, black, Hispanic or Asian. In black America, I've heard 'em all — Pookie, Ray-Ray, Moochie, Big Man, Little Man; you name it.

So when President Obama invokes Cousin Pookie, that's one of those signals to African-Americans to go and get their friends who are unlikely to know there is an election coming up.

"Go out and get your cousin, who you had to drag to the polls last November, Cousin Pookie," the president told the audience in Norfolk.

He knew Deeds needed a large black turnout to have a chance of winning. But even the exhortations of Obama couldn't do it for Deeds, a rather boring candidate who ran away from the president early in the campaign but called on him late, hoping for some Obama magic at the end.

Now, I'm with the president on getting Pookie, Ray-Ray or anyone off the couch to vote, whether you have a job or not. Watching the pathetic turnout in Memphis, Tenn., Greensboro, N.C., Houston, Detroit, Atlanta and elsewhere had me hopping mad. Others have died for us to have the right to vote, and Americans, regardless of ethnicity, just sit on their butts and do nothing. But they will complain in a heartbeat!

The fundamental issue that came out of Tuesday's elections was that voters nationwide really aren't going bananas about health care reform, keeping a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, or Iraq and Afghanistan; it's all about J-O-B-S. A year ago, it was anger at President George W. Bush for everything. Today it's the inability to get P-A-I-D.

Pookie, Ray-Ray, Lisa, Kim, Tom, Jim, Hector, Jesus and Junebug are all out of work, and they are depressed and ticked off. And like it or not, those in power get the blame and must bear the brunt of people's anger.

What's interesting is that exit poll data show that people said President Obama had nothing to do with the local races. The White House used that as its main talking point. Voters may like him personally, but trust me; Obama and the Democratic Party will pay dearly for the economic condition of the country.

October unemployment figures will be released today, and the White House is bracing for unemployment to hit the unthinkable 10 percent.

President Obama will do his best to suggest that we have slowed the pace of job losses and likely will remind us that his $787 billion stimulus package saved or created thousands of jobs. (The White House has said the number is about 650,000.) Yet the folks sitting at home are doing just that — sitting, not working — and that is driving the angst we are seeing.

President Obama and the Democrats had better not hang their hat on the notion that they will not be blamed for the state of the nation. Oh, they will. That means that unless we see drastic changes in the economic condition — J-O-B-S — there is no speech he can give that will save his party. Democrats can and should expect massive losses next November, and that will make the president's agenda far more difficult to implement.

That's why he must stop messing around on health care and get it passed. By allowing Congress to continue to take the lead, he is creating the impression that he is lacking in leadership. He has to put his foot down and make it clear he wants a bill — now. Sen. Harry Reid initially said we shouldn't expect a vote this year. Folks, that is terrible news if you're a Democrat. You can't afford to have health care spill over into 2010, because it has dominated 2009. Like it or not, he needs the win in order to proclaim victory and move on to other items on his agenda. As long as health care dominates the discussion, nothing else is going to come up. The overhaul of the financial services industry will remain on the back burner; immigration reform won't get any traction; and a plan to deal with the troubled assets of Wall Street will go untouched.

Democrats and the White House can spin all day, but they know they are in trouble. Republicans gained critical momentum by winning in Virginia and New Jersey, and they are regaining their voice on the fiscal conservatism front. Social issues are no longer what's driving the right. It's all about the money, and with government spending increasing, Democrats will pay the price.

All of this talk about how President Obama will lose in 2012 is nonsense. So much changes in a year. (Ask former President George H.W. Bush about believing polls in 1991; he was out of a job a year later.) But Obama and the Democrats have a problem. And if they don't listen to Tuesday's voters, it only will get larger next November.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the forthcoming book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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