Obama-Inspired Black Voters Warm to Politics

[Faygo Kid]

Growing up in St. Louis in the 1950s and ’60s, Deddrick Battle came to believe that the political process was not for people like him — a struggling black man whose vote, he was convinced, surely would not count for much of anything. The thought became ingrained as an adult, almost like common sense. And that partly explains why, at age 55, he just registered to vote for the first time a month ago.

The other part of the reason is Senator Barack Obama.

“This is huge,” Mr. Battle, a janitor, said after his overnight shift cleaning a movie theater. “This is bigger than life itself. When I was coming up, I always thought they put in who they wanted to put in. I didn’t think my vote mattered. But I don’t think that anymore.”

Across the country, black men and women like Mr. Battle who have long been disaffected, apolitical, discouraged or just plain bored with politics say they have snapped to attention this year, according to dozens of interviews conducted in the last several days in six states. They are people like Percy Matthews of the South Side of Chicago, a 25-year-old who did vote once but whose experience was so forgettable that he cannot recall with certainty whom he cast a ballot for or even what year it was. Now an enthusiastic Democrat, he says the old days are gone. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/us/politics/02first.html?hp

Yes We Can. Together.

[AdHocSolver]

1. I would add that Obama has inspired a lot of white voters as well, seeing the turnout at his rallies

K and R.

We have to give credit to Howard Dean for his very effective fifty state strategy, as well.

Another piece of good fortune is that the Democrats ran a long primary campaign which energized the public. In 2004, the Democrats shut down their campaign too early in "anointing" Kerry, thereby eliminating the drama, and losing a lot of "free" publicity.