Obama's and Cobell's odd behavior

Another negative reaction to the Cobell settlement:

Good news for Native Americans.  Not.

By Jim KentObama made the suit disappear from the American political consciousness by giving the approximately 300,000 Native American plaintiffs $1.4 billion to divide among themselves. That's about $47,000 each - maximum. It's a nice piece of change if someone just walked up to you on the street and said: "Here's 47 Gs." It's chump change when you should have been getting $1,000 on land leases each month for decades and only received $70 per and a bureaucratic smile.

Odd behavior for a man who recently assured tribal leaders he would work with them to address the chronic problems of health care, economic development, land management and education in Indian Country.

"You will not be forgotten by this White House," Obama told Native American leaders. And, honestly, he didn't forget the Cobell lawsuit. He just forgot how to count.

Even more puzzling than Obama's behavior is that of Eloise Cobell, who called a $7 billion lawsuit settlement proposed in 2007 "an insult, plain and simple." Two years later she says $1.4 billion may "help break the cycle of poverty that has held too many families in poverty for generations."

Excuse me? Apparently, as "W" once negatively influenced people with his poor speech, Obama is doing the same with his poor math.Comment:  To be fair, Elouise Cobell called the settlement a "bittersweet victory." But she accepted it rather than fighting on. Presumably she agreed to settle because she didn't think the plaintiffs could do any better.

For more on the subject, see Why the Cobell Plaintiffs Settled.