APJarrett: Senior adviser to Obama.
APJarrett: Senior adviser to Obama.
DeWayne Wickham USATODAY columnist
A senior adviser to the president, she was in the Big Easy to wave the Obama administration's flag at the annual gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists. The convention is a way station for presidents, Oval Office seekers and their surrogates. At the group's awards dinner Saturday night, Jarrett touted her boss' accomplishments and decried Republican obstructionism that has kept Obama from getting more done.Earlier that day, in a meeting with members of the Trotter Group, an organization of black columnists, she was peppered with a broad range of questions about the president's handling of issues from the environment to foreign trade. But the question she had to know was coming — the one that put her on the tightrope — was about race.Facing the questionThe race question first started dogging Obama in 2008, when he went from an also-ran to a serious presidential contender. Back then, while some blacks asked whether Obama, raised by his white mother and grandparents, was black enough, some whites questioned whether his connection to the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright made him too black.More than three years after becoming this nation's first black president, race still haunts his presidency. Outraged by his presence in the White House, a surprising number of white public figures have treated him with great disrespect. Republican radio host Barbara Espinosa recently called him a "monkey"; conservative commentator Pat Buchanan referred to him as a "boy," a term widely used during the Jim Crow era to emasculate black men.So, it's not surprising that Jarrett winced a bit when the race question came up. Asked whether Obama could turn around his declining support among white voters, she said: "He views everybody as getable. He's going to work hard to persuade everybody that where he's trying to move the nation is the right direction."Needs broad coalitionObama's best path to re-election is to recreate the broad coalition of voters that swept him to victory in 2008. But this time, that might not be good enough without a significant increase in black voter turnout in the swing states of Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.To do this, Obama supporters need to unabashedly trumpet what the president has done for blacks — such as increased funding for education, universal health care, and a sharp reduction in the sentencing disparity for possession of crack cocaine instead of powder, all things that Jarrett said have disproportionately benefited them. And to drive black voters to turn out in record numbers on Election Day, the president's supporters must work blacks into a frenzy by harping on the disrespect and racist comments that have been heaped upon Obama by right-wingers.Understandably, Jarrett doesn't want to stir the racial cauldron. But if Obama is going to get the black turnout he needs, somebody's got to constantly remind them of the race-baiting language supporters of Republican Mitt Romney are using to mine votes for him.The truth is that for Obama, some voters are not "getable." The presence of a black president in the White House is an immutable offense to a hard core of Obama's opponents. To overcome this racism hurdle, the president's re-election campaign must find a way to get blacks — the Democratic Party's most loyal constituency — to the polls in droves on Election Day.DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. 