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Good morning, Tom.  Samuel Jackson is no joke.  I can’t even repeat, I don’t think I can repeat on the radio the word that he used to advise the President.

TOM JOYNER:  No, you can’t.

DON LEMON:  All right.  So I’ll paraphrase.

TOM JOYNER:  Okay.

DON LEMON:  It’s the same word he used to describe, you know, what kind of snakes?

TOM JOYNER:  On the plane.

DON LEMON:  On the you know what plane.

TOM JOYNER:  Right.

DON LEMON:  You know what I’m talking about.

TOM JOYNER:  Yes.

DON LEMON:  Mr. Jackson told Playboy magazine that Mr. Obama should “stop trying to relate, be a leader, be a blanking, it starts with an F, leader.”  How do you like that?  So minus the F-bomb the question is:  does he have a point?  Should the President stop trying to be so relatable and be more presidential? Maybe in the John Wayne/George W. Bush kind of way, or maybe in the Father Knows Best, ala Ronald Regan manner, or even in the hey, I am what I am Bill Clinton kind of nature.

The truth is as much as African-Americans love him and hate to hear people criticize him and understandably are routing for him, trust me, I get it.  The truth is he is the President of all Americans, not just black Americans.  And the majority of Americans right now are not happy with how President Obama is handling his job.  Brand new poll numbers out from CNN show that the President’s job approval rating is sliding.  And fast.  The poll question was:  How is President Obama handling his job as President?  In May, 49%; that’s below 50, 49% say they approved of his handling his job.  In July, 46% said they approved.  And right now 45% say they approve of the way the President is handling his job.  His favorability rating, according to a Bloomberg National Poll, 47% favorable.  And when it comes to handling the economy and foreign policy the numbers for him are even worse.  And look, don’t shoot the messenger by saying that I have it in for the President because I’m giving you this information.  I’m simply relaying what the polls show.  That’s what journalists do.  You can interpret the information however you like.  And by the way Congress has a measly 20% approval rating, the people who won’t get anything done for the President.

But back to the President and Samuel L. Jackson.  Jackson was actually responding to a GQ question about highly educated people, including the President consciously dropping G’s from words in order to sound more like the average Joe.  It wasn’t the first time.  Now Jackson, who is a Obama supporter, raised millions of dollars for him criticized President Obama.  In another interview he said he hoped “Obama gets scary in the next four years.”  And he also said that while Mr. Obama got heated over the New Town shooting he still is a safe dude, a safe dude who’s not getting any help from Republicans.  Okay.  No democratic president, at least in recent history, gets help from Republicans.  Bill Clinton certainly didn’t, Tom.  You know that.  No one hated him more than republicans, and they might’ve hated Hillary Clinton even more than they hated him. So let’s just be honest.  Part of the reasons republicans don’t like the President is because he’s a democrat.  Part of the reason, some republicans, not all, don’t like the President is yes, because he’s black.  You know that.  I know that.  They know that.  And the President knows that.

So that’s why, as I said before on CNN and elsewhere he cannot get heated.  He can’t get heated.  He cannot be the angry black man no matter how much some might want him, even Samuel L. Jackson – and Mr. Jackson, I love your movies, I love your tell it like it is attitude.  Don’t ever stop – so my question to you, Mr. Jackson, and to the listeners today, do you really want this man to go down in history as the angry black President?  It’s okay if you do.  I’m just asking.

TOM JOYNER:  One thing, if he does go down as the angry black President you won’t have another black President. And that’s for sure.

DON LEMON: That’s for sure.

TOM JOYNER:  Make ‘Em Think, Don Lemon.