PHILADELPHIA — Attendees of a black caucus meeting at the Democratic convention Wednesday said they hoped President Obama would vouch for Hillary Clinton’s trustworthiness in his prime-time address later this evening.
Amid Democratic concerns that Clinton may not be able hold together the coalition of voters who put Obama in the White House, African-American activists gathered here said the president should assure voters that Clinton would champion the same causes he did.
“Everybody’s afraid, because they think Hillary’s a liar,” said Caroline Rice, a Pennsylvania retiree who attended the caucus meeting.
“[Obama] has to prove to us, to show us, just like Michelle did, like be personal,” Rice said. “Tell us about how she was reporting to him, why he picked her as his secretary of state, why is it important that he thinks that she can follow in his footsteps, because that’s exactly what she’s going to do.”
Obama won the 2008 election with 96 percent of the black vote and again in 2012 with 95 percent. He turned out millions of African-Americans who were not regular voters, building a coalition that Clinton could find difficult to replicate.
African-Americans at the convention acknowledged Clinton’s deep trust deficit with voters in her own party. Her unfavorable numbers hover around 56 percent while Obama enjoys a relatively high approval rating.
The president’s continued popularity is one reason Clinton has tied herself so closely to Obama.
But the strategy is a double-edged sword, as the public’s approval of his administration does not extend far beyond the president himself. A majority of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, according to a spate of recent polls.
Merle Isler, a Democratic volunteer at the black caucus meeting, said Obama is in the “best position” to convince voters they can trust Clinton.
“Since one of her largest challenges is the trustworthy part, I think he should speak to that, having worked with her, and he appointed her secretary of state,” Isler said.
Ken Smaltz, founder of a get-out-the-vote group called Black Folk Must Vote, said Obama should use his own credibility with the African-American community to explain why Clinton is an acceptable successor.
“I think what he needs to do is, he needs to tell African-Americans [that] if you trust me, if you trust me than you trust my choices that I’ve made. I chose her as the secretary of state,” Smaltz said.
Clinton has struggled to overcome voters’ perception of her as dishonest amid an FBI investigation into her private email server, questions over her participation in a White House effort to cover up the failure in Benghazi and her refusal to engage with the media.
Although her husband’s speech Tuesday night detailing their decades together was generally well-received, it attracted some criticism for papering over the major scandals that have plagued the Clintons throughout their time in public life.
Obama’s highly anticipated speech will come as Clinton tries to unite a party fraught with tensions, some of which bubbled over Tuesday when supporters of her primary rival, Bernie Sanders, marched out of the convention hall and staged a sit-in at the nearby media tent.
Yvette Palmer, a retired teacher from Pennsylvania, said she wanted to see Obama bring his trademark optimism to the stage Wednesday evening.
“People need hope, they don’t need doom and gloom,” Palmer said. “He has to talk about unifying everybody, bring some unity back in there.”
