Cornel West Says Obama Only Concerned With His Legacy

Princeton Professor Cornel West had some harsh words for President Obama in an interview with the Financial Times.

West told the Times that,

“[Barack Obama] is obsessed with being on Mount Rushmore. I think at this point he’s obsessed with being on Mount Rushmore, he wants to be a great figure in the pantheon of American presidents. If you’re thinking about Mount Rushmore, you’re thinking about your legacy, your legacy, your legacy. Puh-lease.”

West insists that while he hasn’t been totally satisfied with the President, he feels that the level of criticism leveled at Obama by Conservatives, and especially the Tea Party, is completely unjustified.

West said,

“He’s not a Muslim, he’s definitely not a socialist,”

West has had strong disagreements with the President before.  West says that he is strongly against the President’s foreign policy.

The Huffington Post also reports that West, when asked his opinion of Obama first term up until now, he said that Obama is “much much better than Mitt Romney” but the rest of his assessment wasn’t exactly glowing.

West said,

“Mitt Romney is a catastrophic response to a catastrophe, whereas Obama is a disastrous response to a catastrophe. Is disaster better than catastrophe? Yes it is. I wish we had a third candidate who could actually do something, but we don’t at the moment,”

Speaking about the foreign policy of the U.S. since Obama took office, West was highly critical of the Obama Administration’s drone policy saying,

“The Obama administration is involved in some very ugly killing of innocent people.”