President Barack Obama’s concern for the "poor" is only political in nature and nothing more. Historically, many Americans fall for a president that sheds crocodile tears for the "poor". That’s how bad political conjuring is. This time it could lead to economic collapse.

It is neither a genuine concern for the needy nor a humane feeling for the" poor" borne out of compassion that is dangerously disquieting. This is especially true when to some Media opportunists that walk by night it is attractively artificial worth more than enough to earn their thirty pieces of silver for keeps when they write down their take for Obama.

Political treachery not just Media trickery are the rules of the game as it has always been. Concern for the "poor" is a good cover for driving the country downhill towards socialism; the sacrilegious mantra to achieve this purpose is "welfareism" that resonates in the wilds of Wall Street and Congress where the Obama government and the people opposed to socialism are locked in an invisible struggle for survival.

Ironically, if the people win in their struggle against Marxist socialism, the Obama government will go bust; if the latter wins, the American people end up in the open jaws of an ideological ogre called Marxist Collectivism that an American president will be hosting in this country for the first time.

How does this new government’s concern for the "poor" claim legitimacy to warrant squandering of the people’s money for welfare in the guise of "economic recovery"? Let’s consult past statistics that established the trend on record. Surveys said "…black family poverty rate has been stuck around 30% since 1970, about 3 times the rate for white families …This persistent poverty rate is the single most depressing fact about the state of black America today… In 1995, 85% of poor black children resided in fatherless families.

"Black men have a much higher poverty rate than whites …Black men were more than twice as likely to be unemployed as white men (23.9% vs. 10.2%)."

Obama’s heart seems to bleed with what appears as his passionate concern for this massive "poor" in the country. He had told a forum of black America that his policies will make a "big difference" to African-Americans who are harder hit by the economic downturn … "The unemployment rate among black Americans is a full five points higher than the rate among Americans as a whole." Obama, said as if the unemployment problem of the blacks was the fault of the whites.

His plan for "economic recovery" was drawn around this racial concern for the "poor", which by all intents and purposes is politically correct. There are reasons to believed that Obama was enthused by his father’s socialist dream in Kenya, and inspired by his wife’s dogged determination "… to utilize all … present and future resources to benefit this [black] community first and foremost." Mrs. Michelle Robinson Obama.

But is this personal interest in the welfare of the nation’s economically disadvantaged really the real McCoy?

The truth about Obama’s family explains why America is gravely in doubt, and that his interest for the "poor" is fake or if not, only skin-deep.

Obama has a half-brother in his late 20s who lives in extreme poverty … in a "two-by-three meter shack in Haruma on the outskirts of Nairobi …" His name is George Hussein Onyango Obama. The President mentioned his brother George in his autobiography as a "beautiful boy with a rounded head".

In a quoted interview, George said he had met his brother [President Obama] twice. The President knew his situation in Huruma, Nairobi. "I live here on less than a dollar a month … I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist" [except his brother, he implies, who is the President of the United States].

With no help whatsoever, George’s touching frustration should have broken Obama’s heart that bleeds for the "poor", but strangely, his brother’s "extreme poverty" didn’t even make a dent of sympathy much more showed a sign of human compassion that the American public expects from the President. There is a complete blackout in the Media on this strange behavior since Obama’s heart started to bleed for the" poor".

If Obama’s heart genuinely bleeds for the "poor", his humanity and compassion should start with his family, more specifically with his brother who needs help more than our homeless in this country do. Here we have at least food and shelter for the homeless. There is none of this kind in the hinterlands of Kenya. There is this old adage that charity begins at home. But in this case, charity did not start in the family, nor will it ever start at home for George who is living in a wretched penury.

But George’s "extreme poverty" in Kenya is different from that of the poor blacks in America. Here, in this country George can’t vote … the poor of America can! And if George can vote in Kenya, Obama wouldn’t care less, would he? This proves that here we have a lot of politicians without human compassion … what we have is a lot of political animals here than a safari would find there in the wilderness of Kenya.

It is only "political concern" for the poor that this author is harping on in this editorial. In his campaign speeches to get elected president, Obama made a covenant with the "poor" of America that runs something like this: You scratch my back, and I scratch yours!

"They" scratched his back all right, and made him president. He is now scratching "their" back, and what do we have … a massive welfare spending in the guise of "stimulus package" for economic recovery!

Where did most of the money go? Evidence shows that it went to places "… that supported President Obama in last year’s presidential election …" a stimulus package that in whatever angle you see is actually an Election Payback! At the tip of the iceberg, $17.0 billion was the first return "scratch" of the back given as financial aid to those who "scratched" his back into becoming president.

This kind of "political mercy", not necessarily borne out of human compassion, is worse than predatory lending that brought this outrageous state of affairs we are now in, to the edge of collapse.

What is unfolding before our eyes is actually a reverse racial redlining, where the general welfare of all Americans is discriminated against for the benefit of only the chosen ones to honor a popular election promise that up to now continues to ride on the back of the gullible out of traditional politicking.

It is sad for me to say that the American taxpayers are condemned to a manacle of paying more tribute to the government in the form of higher taxes to fund Obama’s perpetual "stimulus package" in order to "rescue" a floundering economy that is diseased by predatory lending and reverse redlining. #

© Copyright Edwin A. Sumcad. Access FP.com July 16, 2009.

The writer is an award-winning journalist.　 Know more about the author by reading his published editorials and feature articles or you may e-mail your comment to ed.superx722@yahoo.com.sg.