Obama Wave Stuns Clinton's Black Supporters
By Kevin Merida
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 19, 2008; C01
You can see the confusion on some of their faces, hear the concern in their voices. How in the world do we deal with this?
Hillary Clinton's black supporters -- especially the most prominent ones -- hadn't expected their candidate to be in a dogfight right now. They thought Barack Obama was an election cycle or two away from being serious presidential timber. They thought Bill Clinton's presidency and the close relationships the Clintons had forged with African Americans would translate into goo-gobs of votes in '08. They were wrong.
Remember all the commentator chatter last summer: Is Barack Obama black enough?
Well, he's black enough now.
Obama has swamped Clinton among black voters in each of the 20 contests that had exit polls and large enough samples of African Americans to be meaningful. Just to put that kind of shutout in perspective, black voters represent the only demographic group that the New York senator has not carried at least once during the Democratic primary campaign. Obama now has such a lock on the loyalties of African Americans -- 84 percent of the black vote in Alabama, 87 percent in Georgia, 84 percent in Maryland, and on and on -- that the black vote is no longer contestable.
Which brings us back to the dilemma facing some of Clinton's high-profile black supporters -- those with titles and constituencies of their own. They are feeling some kind of crazy pressure. Last Friday, about 25 of them held an hour-long conference call to discuss what one described as an effort to "pester, intimidate, question our blackness" for not supporting Obama.
The catalyst for the call was a report in the New York Times that Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) was wavering in his support of Clinton. Lewis would not comment, but according to the Times, the congressman had indicated he was prepared to fully flip and back Obama and thus be more in step with his congressional district, which voted 3-to-1 for Obama on Super Tuesday. This bit of news was extremely significant, for Lewis is one of the coveted "superdelegates," those 796 elected officials and party insiders who are not bound by anything that has or will happen at the polls. They are free to choose the candidate of their liking, as unpledged delegates to the national convention. And with the nomination fight so razor-close, they are being wooed -- some say harassed -- like never before.
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That's a great article. I
That's a great article. I especially enjoyed the retrospective of the Jackson candidacy. A crowd booed Coretta? Unbelievable.
This is another affirmation that our people vote our interests, icon or no.
Some OT for you
Clinton going after PLEDGED Delegates
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8583.html
Or not.
rikyrah, The Politico generally--and Roger Simon specifically--must be read with caution. From Talking Points Memo: Both campaigns pledge NOT to pursue this strategy.
Both campaigns pledge NOT to
Both campaigns pledge NOT to pursue this strategy.
Only a fool would expect the Clintonistas to keep their word. They gave their word about Florida and Michigan, too.
Example.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about with The Politico and Roger Simon:
Simon in the Politico:
Here's the transcript for this week's Face the Nation. Just try to find where Wilder predicted "riots in the streets." If you'd rather spend your time more profitably, I'll go ahead and tell you: you won't find it--Simon made it up.
I'm tellin' ya. You have to watch these people.
If Willie Brown, the former
If Willie Brown, the former mayor of San Francisco, is neutral in this election, then God, as one of my uncles used to say, is a opossum. Brown gave an interview to a political columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle a week or so ago in which he related some unflattering behavior about Obama's alleged refusal to appear in a photo with Gavin Newsome, the current mayor of San Francisco. If Willie was actually neutral, he would have declined to be quoted for the story regardless of whether the story was true or not. Brown was not being quite truthful in telling Kevin Merida that he was neutral.
ptcruiser ...
*whistles*
Thanks for linking the
Thanks for linking the article, AAG.!