ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Obama gave his final speech to the Congressional Black Caucus gala on Saturday, in what turned out to be a condescending plea to the black community to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton so his legacy could be continued.

Mr. Obama said he would consider it a “personal insult” if African-American voters didn’t turn out for Mrs. Clinton and that all the progress the country has made over the last eight years, under his reign, was on the line.

“If I hear anybody saying their vote does not matter, that it doesn’t matter who we elect — read up on your history. It matters. We’ve got to get people to vote,” Mr. Obama said. “I will consider it a personal insult — an insult to my legacy — if this community lets down its guard and fails to activate itself in this election. You want to give me a good send-off? Go vote.”

Mr. Obama kept pointing his finger to the camera, trying to talk directly to one of his key constituencies, who in polls, aren’t supporting Mrs. Clinton in the same numbers as they did him. Although I’m not African-American, I found the entire argument a bit patronizing.

Apparently, I’m not the only one.

“I was really annoyed, actually, by the president’s speech,” said Eddie Glaude Jr., the chairman of African American studies at Princeton University, on Monday’s MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

“I think part of what we see is that the Clinton campaign has made a bad decision. They spent most of the summer trying to court disaffected Republicans and taking their base for granted. I said on this show, ‘What would happen?’ as she was getting the endorsements of Bush republicans and the like, ‘How would that excite those folks who are supporting [Vermont Sen. ] Bernie Sanders, how would that excite Latino voters, how would that excite African American voters?” Mr. Glaude said.

“So now what do we get? Instead of a series of rational arguments from our president to black voters, we get, ‘Don’t insult me.’ And I just find that condescending,” Mr. Glaude concluded.

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