Obama Wave Stuns Clinton's Black Supporters

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"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."

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[MADem]

1. I remember that convention, when Coretta Scott King cried.

What many didn't foresee was how much excitement Jackson's campaign would generate in black communities, and how many new voters he would bring into the Democratic Party. His 1984 campaign became a cause for many who were not invested in politics, a way of embracing hope -- Jackson's equivalent of Obama's change -- and what it meant to be black at that point in time. Jackson drew large crowds and racked up big black vote totals. Black political and civil rights icons found themselves on the outside for being on the wrong side. Mickey Leland, a popular Texas congressman who later died in a plane crash, was booed and hissed at his own state's Democratic Party convention for backing Mondale. At the Democratic National Convention, Andrew Young was jeered by black delegates loyal to Jackson, as was Coretta Scott King, who was brought to tears by the experience. Jackson was so ashamed by the treatment of King that he intervened, telling black delegates: "It's a source of embarrassment to me . . . for you to boo or hiss any black leader in this country."

...The moment, observes Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and longtime speaker of the California assembly, is like nothing that has ever been realized for a black officeholder. "It's like Michael Jordan and Dr. J. wrapped into one, playing basketball by themselves," says Brown, who is neutral in the presidential race.

That black voters have so embraced Obama, even against the legacy of the Clintons, is not surprising to Brown. "I think most white politicians do not understand that the race pride we all have trumps everything else."

[grantcart]

2. The irony is that after the results from Texas a delegation will be formed

by Clinton's own superdelegates whose task it will be to explain to her that the jig is up. Leading that pack will be all of the black congressman who jumped in first hoping that they would be getting a plumb administrative position hopefully in the cabinet. Now with full scale rage boiling up they will be given the sword and the opportunity to administer the coup de grace so that the can placate their home districts where right now bright young professionals are forming committees to launch primary campaigns to unseat these folks.

[MrRobotsHolyOrders]

3. "Remember all the commentator chatter last summer: Is Barack Obama black enough?"

What sweet revenge.

[dkf]

4. "Some African American leaders, quite frankly, underestimated him,"

Yup! And so did some others who thought they were ready on day 1!

[Cha]

5. Yes, they did underestimate Obama and

I wish they would have taken time to study him more before declaring themselves behind the potemkin village candidate.

George Clooney came out for Obama early on..I remember all these people liking him before I had decided who I could really get behind.

[CitizenLeft]

6. I remember that

And, hate to say it, and I know some here loathe him, but so did Andrew Sullivan. He was one of the first to endorse him.

[redstate_democrat]

9. Well

I think that if Bill and Hillary hadn't opened their mouths to desecrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.and many, many people who died during the CRM by basically saying it took LBJ to make the "dream a reality", they would be enjoying at least a 50/50 split among black voters. But I guess in Bill's attempt to marginalize Barack and reduce his candidacy to the level of Jesse Jackson's, he didn't really give a crap at the time. He underestimated. And many of these black politicians who go against the will of the people THEY serve will also feel the heat come re-election. They need to step aside anyway. Let's get some real progressive, young, smart Democrats in Washington. Luckily, my congressman supports my candidate. So no problems this way.

[Cha]

11. The clintons' are their won worst enemy and

they seem to have plenty of rope.

[LadyVT]

7. Yeah, but why is he then avoiding New Orleans this weekend?

Shameful.

[my2sense]

8. He needs to campaign for Texas and

Tavis Smiley knows that.

[redstate_democrat]

10. Why

has Hillary Clinton avoided releasing her tax returns? That is the more important question. But to answer yours, Obama doesn't need to go sit on some tired panel all day arguing back and forth about issues that Tavis Smiley has been arguing about for years so that he can write another book about what black America needs to do. Barack is running for president of the United States and the time spent campaigning will do more to advance the issues that these self important pundits believe are isolated to the black community than sitting on some stage discussing "issues" everyone (who has been paying attention) already understands. Yeah, poverty and education are "black issues". Give me a break. Tavis needs to relax.