and congressman emanuel cleaver took president obama to task on black unemployment this week. saying, "if bill clinton had been in the white house and failed to address this problem, we probably would be marching on the white house." well, tonight, two african-american scholars come on to defend the president's performance. and let me finish tonight with a moment of decision for president obama, and it's a big one. we start with the fight for florida. clarence page is a "chicago tribune" columnist and he starts off the discussions tonight. you know, you look at these numbers, clarence, and you and i have been through this a few rounds. here's the new quinnipiac florida poll, 57% disapprove of the president's performance, 39% approve. that's below 40. the worst score of any state the quinnipiac's been looking at. the poll shows that 53% of florida voters say president obama does not deserve to be re-elected. that's kind of a punch. >> oh, yeah. and we know, though, that florida has taken it on the chin for years, because of the housing market in particular. and their -- >> all

emanuel cleaver, chairman of the congressional black caucus told a wonderful story in our caucus the said there was a little by boy and his dad and his dad was reading the paper and the little boy scratched his hand and as he did so, it obviously hurt and he went in front of his dad, shaking his hand, shaking his hand, he walked to and from his father and his father kept reading the paper. and finally his father put down the paper and said, son, i know you scratched your hand. but there's nothing i can do about it. and the little boy looked at his dad and said, you can say ouch. you can understand the pain i'm experiencing. you can understand the pain that losing a job is causing me. you can understand the pain of a home that is lost because the mortgage cannot be paid. you can understand the pain of a family living in a home who has seen the value of that most important asset of theirs dwindle and be reduced. so that the mortgage payment they're paying is more than the value of the home in which they live. the congressional black caucus did two things. it said, we hear and we say "o

 >> bill: impact segment tonight, congressman emanuel cleaver from missouri told the mc"the columbus dispatch" ideal newspaper chain that african-americans are not getting enough help from the feds, quote: bill clinton had been in the white house and failed to address the problem, we probably would be marching on the white house but there is a less volatile reaction in the cbc because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people that hate the president, quote. with us now to analyze dr. marc lamont hill who teaches at columbia university. we just got a statement from his offers saying he was taken out of context. i have been taken out of context myself thousands of times. be that as it may, what's the primary beef among african-americans vis-a-vis the white house. >> i can't speak for all african-americans one central criticism is that the president hasn't addressed a so-called black agenda the way other presidents would have to. >> bill: what does that mean? what is the black agenda? i do this for a living, i have no idea what that means. >> black agenda agenda for all

emanuel cleaver said if bill clinton had been in the white house and failed to address this problem weody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president. james carville. mark penn. senate democrats saying no to the so-called jobs bills. it seems like defections are en masse. >> instead of them arguing what is not working now they are going to play the race card that's a racist comment if that was a white house conservative in the white house -- >> sean: or democrat for saying bill clinton. >> absolutely. they would be screaming racism because they are doing policies tar harming black americans. >> sean: why didn't the president when the congressman andre carson, when he said tea party members want black people hanging from trees in america. why didn't the president say stop it. instead his answer was we are not going to be the speech police. >> why didn't he. you didn't hear anything from jesse jackson, al sharpton, not that you would. you didn't hear from the black caucus members ear, only representative west. for obama not to make a comment, he should have

. >> missouri congressman and congressional black caucus chairman emanuel cleaver, thank you for your time this morning. >> good to be with you. >>> while president obama stumps in the west, in washington the government is facing another threat of a shutdown. the senate will vote on whether to fund the government through november 18th. at the heart of the impasse is money going to federal disaster relief. on friday, senate democrats blocked a republican house bill to offset funding for fema with budget cuts to popular energy programs. meanwhile, fema is running on fumes right now. its money could dry up by tuesday or wednesday. >>> protests against wall street taking an ugly turn as at least 80 people are arrested in incidents showing police using what those at the rally say is excessive force. look at this video for yourself. we're going to talk with one of the men who was in the thick of the events next. n overheated ho. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it's a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with lots of houses to chose fr

. >> but before the dinner iasked the cbc chairman emanuel cleaver if he finds it hard to criticize theisten. >> i've been black all of my life. and i know that african-americans are going to be careful about providing any comfort to those who would like to politically dismantle this presidency. and so, obviously, and unapologetically, we're going to be careful about things that we say that might reflect negatively on the president. >> all right. so the president again, that was before he spoke at the cbc. goldie, we've discussed this situation but the jobs situation isn't getting better. should african-americans keep their criticisms private? i've spoken to people and they say i'm surprised more people aren't marching in the streets when it comes to this economy and unemployment. should african-americans keep it private? >> they have to begin acting in their own interest. if you look at african-american unemployment where it remains in double digit, continues to decline while the rest of the economy begins to table off there are key issues there we have to be concerned about. last nigh

emanuel cleaver told the "miami herald," quote, if former president bill clinton had been in the whites problem with unemployment among african-americans who would probably march on the white house, a less volatile reaction in the congressional black caucus because nobody wants to do anything that would empower the people who hate the president. he's intimating if the president were white, maybe the congressional black caucus would be saying, hey, african-american community, march on the white house, because this guy ain't doing anything for you. >> in this case, congressional black caucus is a stand-in for the liberal base, the obama base. is this going to keep them happy? might keep them a little unhappy. they wanted him to fight the good fight, be the harry truman. his is what the other side is doing and it's wrong. if you want to see things change, stay with me, i'll give them hell. is obama going to do that? not very good in his harry truman interpretation. you never know. he'll make the case for what is in the end sound economic policy. >> to sum it up, then we'll talk about the

emanuel cleaver ii. >> let me just, so the family will know we are here, the members of the congressional black caucus, some of them are behind me. if he would just stand for a moment just so he can see you. thank you. thank you very much. no disrespect. i am going to speak out of my religious tradition and out of the religious tradition of charlie rangel, and i hope that those of you who are from other traditions will be able to relate at least to a part of the symbolism of what i will do, which is to talk about probably the single most well-known scripture in the dacalogue, and it is called the parable of the samaritan. he probably call it a good samaritan, which i am hoping to clear up in my book that will come out in about easter, not the i am shamelessly plugging it. [laughter] the text says nothing about the good samaritan. it says is american, and the reason the text does not say it was good is because it would have been a put do-down. samaritans despise. many of the people use this text to talk about bigotry. the samaritans or half breeds. they had been taken into captivity in wha

when you hear it from emanuel clea cleaver, the mayor of the caucus, in a swing state this presidentan't win in kansas city or votes from st. louis, when you look at the other representatives complaining in some of these midwest states in districts he has to carry real big it can be a real problem. i took it as a shot across the bow saying, look, i'med president preside president. we need to do this together or nobody's going to be helped. >> there are numbers i want to show you with respect to some polling. there is, you know, the president -- we'll just put it up on the screen. all right. let's take a look at this. the black unemployment rate. when president obama took office, it was 12.7%. that swing has widened. 16.7%, the black unemployment rate. it's gotten worse, and the optics of it having gotten worse under a black president are something president obama's got to deal with. i can't draw the line as a business journalist. i don't think it's got anything to do with president obama that it's gotten worse for black, but there are a lot of blacks that think that's ironic and terr