Bill Cosby appeared on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday with Candy Crowley, who asked him about President Obama disappointing minorities, including blacks and gays. Cosby acknowledged Obama hadn't done everything minorities wanted, but blamed conservatives for an unprecedented blockage of his agenda. He also claimed Obama would get it right in his (obviously victorious) second term.
"The people who are supposed to be working -- even for another party -- didn't care about the American people. They wanted to get him," Cosby complained. "When people make statements like, 'I hope he fails,' you can't color that any other way except the way it's said."
Crowley was asking this question from the left, not from the viewpoint of Obama's conservative critics, but his leftist ones like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West:
CROWLEY: You know that there has been some disappointment in the African- American community, some disappointment in the lesbian-gay community, some disappointment for those sort of on the lower end of the economic ladder, that the president hasn't done enough, that he got into office and went too middle of the road. Do you find anything that he has done that disappoints you?
COSBY: I'm disappointed that people who don't look at the woes and the trouble given to this man, people blatantly speaking out against his color, wasting time, starting up new stories about whether or not he was born here, saying things that they can't prove. And this man -- I feel sometimes -- not all the time -- that it's like watching -- his job is -- people want to make it as difficult as the one that Sisyphus had.
And then when you see that he made promises and said things, the people who were supposed to be working with him didn't. The people who are supposed to be working -- even for another party -- didn't care about the American people. They wanted to get him.
When people make statements like, "I hope he fails," you can't color that any other way except the way it's said. And yes, OK, gays, lesbians, blacks, illegal aliens -- pardon me -- people like that are right. It didn't happen. But look at why it didn't happen. It's a man trying to go about doing his job, and a ton of other people voting against him and regardless of what he says.
Crowley tried to suggest that the opposing party is routinely trying to block the president's agenda, but Cosby wasn't having that line. Everybody knows, he claimed, that Obama is getting worse treatment.
CROWLEY: Isn't that kind of, though, the definition of politics and how --
COSBY: No, no --
CROWLEY: -- Washington doesn't always work with the parties?
COSBY: No, this was worse. This was worse. And everybody knows it was worse. And I think that this second term is one where we are really going to see a man who gets it, knows it. And it's going to be better, period.
CROWLEY: So you're confident there will be a second term?
COSBY: I am more than confident because he knows now who to say no to. He knows now who to say, I don't care what you say, this is going to happen. And I believe he is for the people.
