I'm not going to click thru to the NYT, but from the tone of the excerpt I'm guessing that the clueless author of the article never considered that for more than 80% of black voters, the President's race is what matters as far as casting their vote.
Curious blindness, isn't it? (no, actually it's not - this is the NYT we're talking about after all)
This is the untold story in the press. The black vote overwhelmingly went to Obama as it moved from any traditional split netween democtrat and republican and the press does not run stories saying this is because he is black and point out the disconnect.