January 21, 2015 01:05 PM UTC

Ken Buck, Heal Thyself

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

A Tweet sent out by freshman Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado during last night's State of the Union address is provoking lots of secondary debate today:

Mr. President, most Americans think race relations have deteriorated under your leadership #SOTU #SOTUlive #copolitics

— Congressman Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) January 21, 2015

Buck is referring to a poll released this week by Al Jazeera on the state of race relations in America six years into the first African-American presidency of the United States. The problem is, Buck is not reporting the poll accurately. As TPM reported Monday:

The Al Jazeera-Monmouth University poll found that 43 percent of Americans think race relations are worse under Obama, 40 percent said there had been no change and 15 percent said they were better.

Along party lines, 62 percent of Republicans said that race relations had gotten worse under Obama, while only 4 percent said better. Among Democrats, the numbers were more evenly split: 45 percent said no change, 28 percent said better and 25 percent said worse.

Based on these poll numbers, it's accurate to suggest that most Republicans think race relations have become worse since Barack Obama became President. But in truth, it's not even a majority of Americans in this poll who think so–barely a plurality. And if you combine the 40% who say there has been no change with the 15% who say race relations have gotten better since Obama was elected President, why, it appears a majority of Americans think the opposite of what Buck thinks they think!

To be honest, we have trouble considering Buck much of an authority on race relations at all, after he let slip that he thinks all brown kids are "Hispanic."

That said, we certainly aren't arguing that race relations in America are no longer a problem now that we have a black President. It's very difficult to get an accurate poll of the prevalence of racism in America today, since most people who harbor racist sentiments are able to suppress them long enough to not embarrass themselves publicly. But the over-the-top "resistance" over the last six years to what has turned out to be a fairly moderate administration by any objective policy measure is difficult to explain–without factoring some kind of prejudicial reaction to President Obama personally.

You know, like losing your appetite at the mere sight of him.

And with that, we suspect Rep. Buck is ready to change the subject.