By Julianna Goldman
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- When the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation takes up the topic ``What's at Stake in '08'' at its annual legislative conference today, the group's only presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, won't be leading the discussion.
Top billing will go to New York Senator Hillary Clinton, who will be joined by Caucus leaders in the main ballroom of the Washington Convention Center. Obama will speak later in the day, on climate change, in a much smaller conference room.
``I was shocked'' by the program, said Ronald Walters, a political science professor at the University of Maryland in College Park who advised Reverend Jesse Jackson's presidential runs. ``Environmentalism is important, but it's not one of the headline issues in the black community.''
Obama's campaign said he chose his topic for the event, described by its organizers as the ``premier African-American conference on policy issues.'' His decision underscores the delicate balance Obama, 46, is trying to maintain as he competes for votes with Clinton, 59, whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, was called the ``first black president'' at the same event six years ago.
``As a candidate who happens to be black, he has to run what I would call a deracialized campaign,'' said Bruce Ransom, a political science professor at Clemson University in South Carolina. Obama must ``maximize the votes that he can receive from black voters but campaign in a way such that he does not alienate the broader electorate.''
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Obama's approach will have one of its first tests in the Jan. 29 Democratic primary in South Carolina, where blacks may account for about 50 percent of the voters and Clinton is ahead in the polls.
Donna Brazile, who ran former Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign in 2000, said Obama's strategy would be effective. ``Just because he's black, Obama doesn't have to pander to black voters,'' she said. ``He must prove to them that he can win the White House.''
Too Young
Unlike black leaders such as Reverend Al Sharpton and Jackson, Obama is too young to have direct experience of the civil-rights era. The son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother, Obama lived in Indonesia and Hawaii.
``His campaign emerges in the middle of the electorate,'' Walters said. ``In that sense, he is not Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, whose campaigns rose in the black communities at the margins of the electorate.''
While Clinton and Obama each have 12 endorsements from lawmakers belonging to the 42-member Black Caucus, Clinton has more room to maneuver on racial issues, Marable said. Obama ``can't overtly appeal to'' blacks for fear of turning off other voters, while ``Hillary can, and Bill shamelessly does,'' he said.
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Tolliver said Obama decided to discuss climate change at the Black Caucus event ``to raise energy and environmental- justice issues that impact all Americans, yet pose specific challenges to the quality of life of African-Americans.''
Joan Carter, a conference attendee who lost her Miami home to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and now lives in New York, said she looks forward to hearing Obama's thoughts on the environment.
``It's not all about race sometimes,'' said Carter, 58. ``It's about issues.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZeD5OiaQqdU&refer=homeGreat read in response to this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3556752&mesg_id=3556752
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