STEVE CHAPMAN'S ARTICLE.

Steve Chapman's piece urging President Barack Obama to consider stepping aside from his reelection bid baffles the mind. He happens to be a Chicago Tribune editorial writer, and for all intents and purposes, he must be taken seriously. However, he is making just one simple mistake, by jumping to an unfortunate conclusion.

His deductions for bringing that up are from Obama's record-low approval ratings, an unease in the Democratic base, the prospect of a double dip recession......but he fails to mention why these things are happening.

Obama assumed the presidency at a time, when America was involved in two wars, and the economy was not at all good either. Unemployment was already very high, at 8%; and it was like giving a person a spade, instead of a ladder, to climb out of a hole.

If Steve Chapman was a really observant person, he would have noticed that the opposition that Obama was to face in his first term would not just emanate from party politics. He had to deal with racism, first and foremost, before he could do anything else.

America had never had an African American as president before, and it was something that had taken its people by surprise; and therefore the criticisms from a biased media would start to mount from the very beginning, and would make it even more difficult for him to settle down in the strangest of all places, the White House, for a black leader.

Biased media, because they never thought the day would ever arrive to visualize a black Western leader; and so they were taken aback. They did not know how to handle him; should it be with respect or disdain, they had asked among themselves.

Yet, he had to carry on, without knowing the outcome himself.

Chapman's suggestion of bringing in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to replace Obama is a Republican idea, to cover up the uncertainty that is going on in their own camp. The party is faced with an enormous problem of finding a winning candidate for the 2012 general election; and so, the attempt to create confusion in the Democratic Party is not in all estimation too far fetched.

Besides, the opposition in the Congress of the United States has made the gridlocks and stalemates possible, and not Obama. Any proposal from him has been met with nothing but sheer hatred and vehement animosity.

He has done what the war mongers among members in Congress wanted him do; to continue the war in Afghanistan, with the increment of more than 30,000 soldiers. They have forced him to extend the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy.

His aim was to curtail them (tax breaks) and to stop that war, but he could not have the chance in hell to accomplish his objectives. He was not sure that many of the measures he would be forced to undertake would take a chunk of support out of his base. The fact being that his backers thought that he was a "dove", and that he would bring peace, as he had promised during his campaign.

However, wars were fought before peace could be achieved; and he could not hop out of a bad situation, from which the attacks of 9/11 had emerged and call for an instant stoppage of the Afghan war.

He had found himself in a position, where he had to decide on what was best for the country, and not what was in his own best interest; no, not anymore. He wanted to unite all of America, because he thought that attitudes have changed for the better; but he was wrong.

Lately, he was being compelled to go another way, to bring back the overwhelming support that had catapulted him to the presidency.

So, if Chapman had given candidate Obama the backing to become president, he should be prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, that what he (Obama) expected to see was a consensus on many issues, after he was sworn in, but it was not there.

The unity that should come to a changed nation, to give him a promising start was missing; and so, he had to do the best he could.

All Americans knew what was going on, that Congress has become dysfunctional not for anything, but racism. To permit a black person to succeed in the highest office of the nation must not happen.

The opposition has been reinforced by the members, who were voted in around November of 2010; and he has been struggling with double jeopardy. He has been stopped in his tracks ever since.

If Chapman had a mind that could not be swayed as easily as others, he would be able to realize that Obama has done very well as president, under all circumstances; therefore, his reelection should be a must for the whole world see that the new experiment, that has started in 2008 and made Obama the leader of the United States, was going well; and it needed time to succeed.