Cornel West Calls Obama 'Black Mascot,' 'Black Puppet'

Cornel West, the Princeton Professor who strongly supported President Barack Obama on the campaign trail in 2008, has already previously expressed his disillusionment with what he says is the Obama administration's neglect of the poor and working class people in the United States while supporting the leaders of the nation's financial system.

On Monday West described Obama as a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and now a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.

The comments were published in an interview with TruthDig.com

West also took issue with Obama's handling of the military.

And now he has become the head of the American killing machine and is proud of it, he said.

West reiterated criticism of the President's top economic officials, Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers, describing them as a neoliberal economic team.

When the pair were introduced, West said he felt he had been misled at a very deep level.

He had expected others to come in such as economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman.

I figured, OK, given the structure of constraints of the capitalist democratic procedure that's probably the best he could do. But at least he would have some voices concerned about working people, dealing with issues of jobs and downsizing and banks, some semblance of democratic accountability for Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats who are just running amuck. I was completely wrong, West said.