The truth is most of America does quite know how to “act” with a “black” sitting president. The entire executive branch of government has been virtually gridlocked since his election; yet still, the administration has still achieved some incredible milestones. For a while, it seemed every couple of months two or three appointments were resigning from his administration.

No national spokespersons for (if I may) Black America have so fervently and adamantly as Smiley and West (and West to lesser degree) attacked Obama. They have even come to share a time-slot on the airwaves of public radio. While it is necessary to critically engage the actors of the politico-sphere there is a peculiar order and unspoken-reserved-poise that it seems most of Black America has assumed with the first black President of America. No one can really know what sort of dilemmas with which Obama has been in contention aside from his wife, Michelle. And even she, may be kept “in the dark” about some things.

One could argue that Smiley is “just doing his job.” I would find no qualm with this but that as time passes it seems that his attacks are personally rooted. It is widely known that both Smiley and West were taken-aback for not being invited to a private White House function. Smiley, who has posited himself as a voice of Black America (and perhaps rightly so, as for some time he was one of the only African-American left-leaning pundit in broadcast), may have so truncated himself from the President Obama-phenomena that it may likely become difficult for him to regain his former posture with Black America. I for one, have become more circumspect of his method… though not necessarily his means. I realize that Smiley has assumed an agenda for “the people” but I feel some of his remarks should be “kept in the house… among us-folk.”