Obama’s Latest Positive News: More Blacks Leaning To Him
The recent spurt of positive news about Senator Barack Obama’s campaign now includes the fact that Obama is increasingly winning the support of black voters.
Booker Rising: gives us this quote from a Wall Street Journal piece:
Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Illinois) rising poll numbers among white voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are having an unexpected ripple effect: Some black voters are switching their allegiance from Sen. Hillary Clinton (D- new York) and lining up behind him too. That could mean a further tightening of the Democratic presidential race, especially in southern states where blacks make up as many as half of Democratic primary voters.
The evidence of movement is most clear in South Carolina, site of the first Democratic primary where black votes figure to make a significant impact. There, four polls now show the liberal Illinois Democrat with a lead among black voters for the January 26, 2008 vote. As a result, the race in South Carolina has tightened, with some polls calling it a dead heat. A Rasmussen poll completed last week among South Carolina voters shows Sen. Obama now attracting 51% of the African-American vote, compared with 27% for Sen. Clinton. A month ago, the candidates were tied among South Carolina black voters. Along with other polls, Rasmussen shows the two candidates essentially tied among all South Carolina voters.
A Pew Research poll completed late last month shows Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama virtually tied among black voters nationwide; two months ago Sen. Clinton held a 12-point advantage. But an ABC News/Washington Post poll this week shows Sen. Clinton still with a commanding lead among African-Americans nationwide.
Booker Rising’s Shay writes:
My response: So only when white Democrats give the stamp of approval, do more black Democrats gravitate to Sen. Obama. That is being a follower, and not a leader. However, there is now less of the phenomenon that I have pondered on my blog about why so many black Democrats are supporting white candidates over Sen. Obama when he supports what they support and has a track record of activism within black communities.
The Christian Science Monitor has also noted how Obama is picking up more and more support from black voters.
If this is widespread and true, then it is one more big, fat political migraine for New York Senator Hillary Clinton and her team, who have been counting on former President Bill Clinton’s appeal among many black voters to transfer over to Hillary. If true, it’s HIGHLY significant and can’t mean Ms. Clinton will have an easy path to the 2008 Democratic nomination (a path that seems rockier with each day).
Just look at some of the past political stories on this subject:
So Far, Obama Can’t Take Black Vote for Granted
No lock on black voters for Obama
Could Black Voters Trip Up Obama?
Is black America ready to embrace Obama?
Obama gospel tour opens, courting black voters
Analysis: Why black voters are supporting Hillary, not Obama
5 Responses to “Obama’s Latest Positive News: More Blacks Leaning To Him”
I recall this happened to Obama in Illinois in 2004. Black voters supported the establishment candidate Dan Hynes over Obama. South Side Chicago politicians had scrapped with Obama before and the Chicago machine disliked him. But then things fell into place in the last couple weeks. The Tribune endorsed him. Blair Hull, a self-financed wife beater imploded. And black voters started to flock to him. He’d already been big in Evanston, and now he was getting statewide support.
I’ve always thought Obama needed to get momentum going among whites before blacks would start to support him. I think blacks have faced many battles over the years and have huge obstacles to overcome. They want to support the winner, rather than be on the losing side.
I also have (and I might be way off base here so I’d appreciate everyone else’s insights into this) a feeling that many blacks have esteem issues (I would if I were black in this culture and had been told all my life that I was second class) and they don’t feel the white establishment (their “betters”) would ever vote for a black as President. Again I may be way off base and I’m not trying to be a racist, I’m trying to understand what might be at work psychologically.
Once blacks see that Obama has support and a real chance at being President then blacks will feel more confident in supporting him.
Forget Obama’s lack of experience junket that people throw out as a reason to vote for someone else. A true leader doesn’t need years of experience to lead and inspire. I mean look at Bush…. he is such a divisive, polarizing figure but because he is the Prez he sets the whole tone for the country. When people see the President act a certain way (good or bad), they think it’s OK to act that way and so they do it. So yeah, experience is great, but it’s not everything. After Bush this country has some serious healing to do and Obama who worked hard to get to where he is (and not through family connections, like Bush), is just the person this country needs.
I posted a link to the Journal article and quoted from it already, elsewhere. (Wasn’t expecting any credit for that; not used to getting any.) Just don’t (il)logically leap from reading that article to writing Hillary Clinton’s political obituary before the elections actually begin. It’s somewhat early for that.
StockBoySF said,
Your words are very true and have been echoed by a some black psychologists and professors. Many of my own family just think that Obama has no chance (the conspiracy arm of my family thinks he will be sabotaged by the “white establishment”). And the conversations are full of self-hatred and ultra self-criticism.
Thanks, T-Steel. I appreciate your insight. The good news is that Obama is being supported by a lot of “white establishment” types and even if he’s not elected President, he’s already powerful and sets a good example (and shows that it is possible to achieve status), as do so many other blacks.