Tavis Smiley

In his book "Accountable," talk show host Tavis Smiley says President Obama and black America will be better served if Obama is held to a high standard.

Talk Show Host are learning to negotiate what talk show host and author Tavis Smiley calls an "unfamiliar dance." If you push too forcefully, he says he has learned, you risk your credibility in the community.

That's what happened to Smiley last year, when he was the one in the commentator's chair on Tom Joyner's syndicated morning radio program. During the heated Democratic primary, Smiley questioned Obama's decision not to attend his annual State of the Black Union conference and said he hoped Obama would make it through the campaign "with his soul intact." The push-back was "brutal," Smiley recalls. Angry listeners called him a "sellout," an "Obama hater" and "Uncle Tom." Surprised and hurt, Smiley left Joyner's show but now uses the rough patch to make the case for a new book he co-wrote, "Accountable: Making America as Good as Its Promise."

The book, Smiley's third about issues facing black Americans, has a picture of Obama on the cover and outlines the president's promises during the campaign to elevate the status of his fellow African Americans. Smiley wants readers to use the book as a tool to measure the new administration.

"If President Obama succeeds, there is the chance that we will have another person of color as president. If he succeeds, there is the chance that we will at some point have a woman as president. But if he fails . . . it may be another 400 years before we get another African American president," Smiley says, arguing that tough questions will make Obama a better leader.

"I know what I'm up against," he continues, because he is still accused of "casting aspersion on Barack Obama or having some issue with Barack Obama."