Progressives projected their own fantasies onto Obama rather than reading him honestly

Evidence

Obama was supposed to be different. He was supposed to care about black people. When I listen to Cornel West I hear more than a strident criticism of Obama’s policies. I hear bitter disappointment. And the disappointment goes beyond the president. We’ve been duped, and we’re angry with ourselves. Many progressives “green-screened” him. We made Obama whatever we wanted him to be. If we wanted an antiwar candidate, he was it. If we wanted someone who supported universal health care he was it; someone who would challenge Wall Street, he was our guy; a candidate committed to the poor, Obama was our man. He was our political Play-Doh. And he obliged our fantasies all the way to the White House. Obama said as much in The Audacity of Hope: “I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views. As such, I am bound to disappoint some, if not all, of them.” As we say back home in Mississippi, “He ain’t never lied!” — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 401

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to white identity politics discussion elsewhere and to Black electoral loyalty frameworks; also parallels how ‘blank screen’ candidates function generally. — connects to: Obama’s record never warranted progressive hopes placed in him; Desperate desire for deliverance narrowed what progressives could imagine politically
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Obama’s record never warranted progressive hopes placed in him; Desperate desire for deliverance narrowed what progressives could imagine politically