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Why Haven’t More Blacks Jumped the Democrat Ship? Bob ParksI felt the following quote requires some further commentary... I'm confused as to why any African American would be a Republican in this day and age.- Robin Wright-Jones, (D) Missouri State Representative With all due respect to Representative Wright-Jones, I can't understand why more blacks haven't jumped the Democrat ship. Granted, with decades of vilification, I can understand why people decide to avoid the public ridicule one would be exposed to as a black Republican. While many, including former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry, mistakenly believe (for example) President Lincoln was...

Recent comments by well-known black Republicans J.C. Watts and Armstrong Williams that they're conflicted about the upcoming presidential elections and are contemplating voting for Barack Obama have sent shock waves through the Republican Party. I'm hearing many black Republicans echoing similar sentiments. They say that because of the historical significance of casting a vote for the first legitimate black presidential candidate, they may cross party lines. These statements don't surprise me.

Mike Terry is black, and he knows that a black man giving someone a fist bump is not news. He also knows that calling a man's wife his "baby mama" is derogatory, and that no self-respecting black person he has ever met would use the term "whitey," even if they wanted to insult a white person. That's why he rolls his eyes at the news media's recent coverage of Barack and Michelle Obama. He calls it "typical," emblematic of the gap in understanding between black and non-black America. "The brother is black, and he can't throw up a fist?" asked...

THE interim between the primaries and the parties’ nominating conventions is, according to ancient writ, a fertile period for presidential campaigns to talk about how they plan to expand the political map in the fall. This year is no different. Barack Obama’s strategists are suggesting that the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party can parlay increased turnout among black voters into a string of victories in the South. Given that roughly half of all African-Americans live in the 11 former Confederate states, the idea seems intuitive enough. It’s also wrong. Prying Southern electoral votes away from the...

...For Sen. Obama, the registration initiative is at the fore, especially since the main reason for low black turnout is low registration. The U.S. Census Bureau says that while registered black voters turn out at a rate generally even with white counterparts, qualified African-Americans register at a lower rate nationally -- 68% to 75% for whites. The gap is particularly stark in the battleground state of Florida, where only 53% of eligible blacks were registered in 2004, compared with 71% of whites. In Virginia, it was 58% to 72%. If Sen. Obama can achieve registration parity, the effect could be...

THE interim between the primaries and the parties’ nominating conventions is, according to ancient writ, a fertile period for presidential campaigns to talk about how they plan to expand the political map in the fall. This year is no different. Barack Obama’s strategists are suggesting that the first African-American presidential nominee of a major political party can parlay increased turnout among black voters into a string of victories in the South. Given that roughly half of all African-Americans live in the 11 former Confederate states, the idea seems intuitive enough. It’s also wrong. Prying Southern electoral votes away from the...

Mr. Elder, I am shocked that you oppose Barack Obama and belong to the Republican Party. We must get over ourselves and realize there is room at the top for everyone and we must get there by helping each other -- instead of agreeing with policies and old politics that are proven not to work. To endorse John McCain, a person who will not make it easier for the underprivileged, is just too much. How can a fellow black American feel this way? Your Former Supporter Dear Former Supporter, Do you have any Republican friends, let alone black ones? If...

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062408/content/01125106.guest.html RUSH: I went back and did a little research, folks, because I still can't get over this. I can't get over the fact that this guy from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation yesterday, Charles Steele, Jr., went out and said that we're gonna still be criticizing people here because Obama doesn't have any slave blood. He's not authentic. He's not black enough, ain't got no slave blood. He said that Michelle Obama has slave blood, but Obama does not have slave blood himself, and, as such, the genuine civil rights movement blacks will not have...

Kim Whitley (in the Obama shirt), Flo Rida, Lil Mama, Young Joc and Mc Lyte praise Obama from the red carpet at the Black Entertainment Awards in America. BBC has video of the interviews HERE. The BET crowd joined together to holler "Obama or Die" (video here) last night at the annual awards show. MyWay reported: Barack Obama didn't attend the BET Awards, but that didn't stop attendees from talking about him. "If we all register and vote, we will have the first black president in the history of America," Sean "Diddy" Combs told the crowd Tuesday at the Shrine...

It was an Obama lovefest at the Black Entertainment Television awards last night. Puff Daddy/P Diddy/whatever chanted “Obama or die” and urged his peers to elect the “first black president.” Alicia Keys, last heard spreading conspiracy theories about the government killing Tupac and Biggie and creating gangsta rap to perpetuate black genocide, yelled “Obama, y’all!” It was one big race-based ad for Obama. So, who’s obsessing about his race? Oh, yeah. All of us non-black bigots!

Stars like P.Diddy and Alicia Keys rallied up to show their support for Obama at the BET awards on Tuesday. Diddy got on stage and started chanted "Obama or Die." He told the crowd, "If we all register and vote, we will have the first black president in the history of America." Diddy wasn't the only one overexcited about the possibility of having Obama as our next president. As Alicia Keys picked up her award for Best Female R+B Artist, she said, "Together we can do anything," before adding, "Obama y'all!"

In a sign that Democrat Barack Obama will be competitive in the nation's largest swing state, he is beating Republican John McCain comfortably in South Florida and has a slight edge among Hispanics, according to a new Miami Herald poll....

Two black conservatives -- one a pastor, the other a leader of an urban ministry -- say they can't understand why a number of black Republicans have publicly said they are considering voting for Barack Obama this election. It should be about character, they say, not skin color. Ken Hutcherson, an African-American pastor in suburban Seattle, says black conservatives who are supporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama must remember what they have been saying about race for decades. Several prominent conservative African-Americans have said they are at least considering supporting Obama because of his race. The list includes talk-show host...

RUSH: Since we're talking about Obama, he went out there and he did a Father's Day speech. It was the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Sunday morning. Don't you love all these Democrat politicians that go deliver sermons in churches? They're making a big deal out of Obama's speech, as if nobody's ever said these things before. We have a montage here of the Drive-Bys, we have Jake Tapper, we got John Roberts, Kiran Chetry, and Robin Roberts, Jeff Glor all going nuts here over Obama's speech. We've got sound bites of Obama's speech coming up. TAPPER: It was...

WASHINGTON - Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee. ADVERTISEMENT "I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible." Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered conflicting emotions among...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee. "I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible." Just as Obama has touched black Democratic voters, he has engendered conflicting emotions among...

Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - Black conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams has never voted for a Democrat for president. That could change this year with Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee. "I don't necessarily like his policies; I don't like much that he advocates, but for the first time in my life, history thrusts me to really seriously think about it," Williams said. "I can honestly say I have no idea who I'm going to pull that lever for in November. And to me, that's incredible." Just as...

Maxine Waters switches to Obama; Kilpatrick endorses Obama Staff Reporter | Posted June 3, 2008 5:59 PM Three black members of Congress have endorsed Barack Obama today, moving with lightning speed to line up with the man who will tonight become the Democratic nominee. Rep. Maxine Waters, a Hillary Clinton supporter, announced today that she is switching her vote to Barack Obama. And Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan has also endorsed Obama. The news comes just as Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, an uncommitted superdelegate and the highest ranking African American in Congress, announced his support for Obama...

With senator Barack Obama poised this week to clinch his party's nomination for President, there are growing fears in some quarters that the Democratic party may not be choosing its strongest candidate to beat Republican John McCain. Senator Hillary Clinton has been making that argument for weeks. Now some recent polls and analysis, looking particularly at vital battleground states and support among white voters, have bolstered her case - even as Obama looks certain to become the nominee. Obama supporters reject this argument and point to his record of boosting Democratic voter turnout, especially among the young. But sceptics in...

Even as she continues her longshot presidential bid, Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a political rift in New York, where black leaders say her standing has dropped due to racially charged comments by her and her husband during the campaign. African American elected officials and clerics based in New York City say Clinton will need to defuse resentment over the campaign's racial overtones if she returns to New York as U.S. senator. McCain contributions are rolling in Obama takes Clinton's word that RFK remark was innocent gaffeState Sen. Bill Perkins, who represents Harlem, said constituents recently phoned him because they wanted...

  Senator Obama is one of key leaders in a campaign to make Juneteeth Day a National Holiday in the United States. Juneteeth Day occurs on every June 19th, the anniversary of General Granger announcing the emancipation of slaves in the South West. The Holiday would be celebrated on the third Friday in June. Here's what the NYT wrote about it on 2004: "Most gatherings are decidedly upbeat, but the sobering reason for the holiday has also been part of Juneteenth's growth. Dr. Ronald Myers, the leader of a movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, says June 19 should...

In an attempt to explain how race will impact Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's run for the White House, Newsweek has created a "Racial Resentment Index" exclusively for white people without measuring such biases of non-whites.

A new NEWSWEEK Poll underscores Obama's racial challenge. Even as he closes in on the Democratic nomination for the presidency, Sen. Barack Obama is facing lingering problems winning the support of white voters--including some in his own party.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is right. She has the broader and whiter political coalition, so she should, by all rights, be the Democratic presidential nominee. After all, in other realms of the political process, we routinely refer to "black districts" or "Latino districts" and speak of the necessity of those jurisdictions to be represented by black or Latino elected officials. Well, then, because the American population is 66% white, maybe the United States is a de facto white district that should be represented accordingly. Don't scoff at the idea. Ethnic and racial self-determination have been underlying factors in the formation of...

DES MOINES, Iowa - Barack Obama shied away from triumphantly proclaiming total victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton last night, but he certainly annihilated the central reason she gives for staying in the race. The Clinton team claims that Sen. Obama is nothing more than a black candidate with a sidecar of liberal academics. This is why, the Clintons argue, white Democrats in working-class and rural states simply can't pull the lever for this black guy with a foreign-sounding name. And, the Clinton's implied reasoning goes, since she appeals so much to these racist white Democrats that are the "backbone" of...

Even before I heard Chris Matthews mention it, it struck me too . . . Among the visuals a big-time campaign carefully choreographs is the human backdrop when the candidate speaks—particularly when it's a matter of an important, nationally-televised speech. So it's very hard to imagine that it was coincidence that the crowd visible behind Hillary this evening as she gave her Kentucky primary victory speech . . . was comprised 100% of people of pallor. Kibitzing with co-anchor Keith Olbermann immediately after Clinton's comments, Matthews mentioned it. CHRIS MATTHEWS: I thought a giveaway line was "who is best positioned...

WASHINGTON - What a difference a nomination makes. Now that he's wrapped up the Republican nomination for president, Sen. John McCain has decided to attend the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Cincinnati in July. A year ago when he was just one of a pack of GOP contenders, he turned down the civil rights group's invitation. McCain disclosed his plans in an interview with the African-American publication Essence, which was released Tuesday. Asked how he might reach out to the black community, McCain replied that he would "go to places and venues...

If it were not for a number of conservative journalists who deal with facts and not spin, many of us would have no idea what the news media are not reporting about the social, financial, academic, religious and political events upon which we are called to make informed – indeed, crucial – decisions. A recent article in To The Point News, “Barack Don’t Know Much About History Obama,” by Jack Kelly, is a perfect example. In his article, Kelly points out the numerous historical flaws contained in Sen. Barack Obama’s victory speech after the North Carolina primary. Obama said that...

Furthermore, Obama does not deserve the vote of any Catholic, Jew, or self-respecting African-American. The reason has nothing to do with the color of his skin, and everything to do with the content (or lack thereof) of his character. ...It is easy to imagine white people, and especially Jewish white people, reacting to this picture the way most African-Americans would react to a candidate posing arm in arm with someone in a sheet and hood in front of a burning cross. ...Hillary Clinton added, and quite correctly, that she “found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans,...

I'll never forget a frigid morning in Springfield: Sen. Barack Obama, elegantly Lincolnesque in a long wool coat, launching his presidential candidacy in the shadow of the old Illinois State Capitol. The echoes of history were almost deafening—not just of Abraham Lincoln, who, like Obama, had been a legislator there, but of the argument over slavery and race that Lincoln had joined there. On that sunny February day in 2007, Obama seemed to radiate uplift and glorious possibility. He was making a statement: that his candidacy would be the exclamation point at the end of our four-century-long argument over the...

A confluence of groups customarily inclined toward Hillary Clinton was voting in the West Virginia primary, with less-educated, lower-income Southern whites predominating. Nonetheless there was room for criticism of Clinton -- and bringing "needed change," Barack Obama's trademark, was again the most-desired candidate trait. The Race Factor Racially motivated voting appeared to be running higher than usual: Two in 10 whites said the race of the candidate was a factor in their vote, second only to Mississippi. And only a third of those voters said they'd support Obama as the nominee against John McCain, fewer than in other primaries where...

It appears that Barack Obama has survived a tough couple of weeks. In the words of some, he's shown that "he can take a punch." But, frankly, I think Senator Obama is still getting kid gloves treatment from a press corps that tilts left. Despite the hounding about his "bitterness" remarks, and the ongoing story of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, there's been hardly 10 seconds of attention about his incredible statement that he wouldn't want his daughters "punished with a baby" if they "make a mistake." This in a discussion about HIV/AIDS in which he said that contraception should be...

Democrats bristle at talking about this in plainer terms. They say Sen. Hillary Clinton has found her base -- the "working class." That's why she won in the Rust Belt primaries. That's her great hope in Kentucky and West Virginia. But calling Clinton's strategy one of kowtowing to the "working class" doesn't quite say it, does it? Isn't this just old-fashioned racism within the Democratic Party? When Hillary strategists say they are winning the "working class," they don't mean they are winning working people with a household income of, say, less than $50,000. All the exit polls show quite clearly...

From the very beginning, the premise and the promise of Barack Obama’s campaign was that it would transcend race. And last autumn the Obama team also knew this was the only way it could win. The Clinton brand among black voters was so strong, so unbreakable, so resilient a force that even the first credible black candidate for the presidency remained stuck 20-30% behind Hillary Clinton among African-American voters. She was, after all, the wife of the “first black president”, as the author Toni Morrison called Bill. She had almost all the black political establishment behind her. Her husband, from...

Hillary Clinton, down to her last straw, is making the case that she is the better candidate to run against the Republicans because, unlike Barack Obama, she can win white Democrats. She is right. But because she is daring to touch the hot button of racial politics, she is being told to shut up or risk being charged with exploiting racial tensions for political advantage. The facts are stubborn, however. Since his phenomenal win with 33% of the white vote in nearly all-white Iowa, Obama has been unable to get a firm grip on white Democrats. He has won a...

NEW YORK — Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.), among Hillary Rodham Clinton’s top African-American supporters, was none too pleased with Clinton’s comments this week to USA Today that she has broader appeal with white voters. The statement was “the dumbest thing she could have said,” Rangel told reporters before a Clinton fundraiser in a midtown hotel ballroom Saturday. He called her statement “very poorly worded” but acknowledged there may be some truth to it. “In any campaign, there are groups of people that you know that you have and groups of people that you don’t,” he said. “And I don’t...

IN HER long, sad self-diminution to being merely a white candidate for subsegments of white people, Hillary Clinton claimed to USA Today this week, "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on." Clinton exploited an Associated Press poll to say how "Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me . . . There's a pattern emerging here." more stories like thisThis was on top of Democratic strategist and Clinton supporter Paul Begala saying this week on CNN, "We...

Whether or not the Democratic primary marathon between two path-breaking candidates has been good for the party or the country, it has clearly been good for people like me: political scientists who study voting behavior. We've been given a data gold mine, the results of an experiment that no one intended to conduct. Sen. Barack Obama is the all but certain Democratic nominee, but voting patterns in Indiana and North Carolina show that resistance to a black candidate among some white Democrats remains a serious threat to his chances in November: · As in other recent primaries, Sen. Hillary Rodham...

Well, Barack Obama should be one happy guy. His big victory in North Carolina has pretty much locked up the Democratic presidential nomination. Now it is virtually impossible for Hillary Clinton to defeat him in the popular vote or in the elected delegate category. Thus, Obama has the nomination won unless another Rev. Wright crawls into the picture. Spinners who talk about re-votes in Florida and Michigan are dreaming; that will not happen. The Obama campaign would be foolish to participate. They played by the Democratic Party's rules and won. They're not going to sanction do-overs. Also, as Al Sharpton...

In black America, oh, how the mighty have fallen. Bill Clinton is no longer revered as the "first black president." Tavis Smiley's rapid-fire commentaries on a popular radio show have been silenced. And the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., self-described defender of the black church, has been derided by many on the Web as an old man who needs to "step off." They all landed in the black community's doghouse after being viewed as endangering Sen. Barack Obama's chances of being elected president. And the community's desire to protect the first African American ever to be in this position may...

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Hillary Rodham Clinton lost her last best chance to score an upset on Barack Obama's turf Tuesday, putting the Illinois senator a step closer to becoming the country's first black presidential nominee. Obama was the long-standing favorite in North Carolina, and he won with the overwhelming support of black voters there despite an intense effort by Clinton to turn the state around. Obama's victory there was tempered by the fact that Clinton beat him handily among white voters, extending her argument to superdelegates who will decide the nomination that she will be the stronger general-election candidate. ...Eighteen percent of North...

Her failure to challenge Barack Obama's huge momentum among African-Americans -- not a given at the start -- may have doomed her campaign.If Hillary Clinton fails to wrest the Democratic presidential nomination from Barack Obama, there will be plenty of second-guessing about how she ran her campaign. What if her loyalty to campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle and chief strategist Mark Penn had not prevented her from demoting them sooner? What if her electoral strategists had better understood the power of caucus states and the way in which votes cast there translated into delegates? What if she had actually planned...

Experts say Supreme Court ruling upholding law could disenfranchise minorities, youth and the elderly. Experts say African-American voters — a key constituency of Barack Obama in the primaries thus far — might be disproportionately affected in Tuesday’s Indiana primary by the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the state’s voter identification requirement. Studies show that African-Americans are especially likely not to have the identification necessary to vote on Tuesday. Several other groups, notably elderly voters, disabled voters and young voters, are also more likely than the general population not to have the necessary identification. “The research is pretty clear that...

Some black residents in Indianapolis say they're upset that Sen. Barack Obama has spent little time campaigning in the city's black neighborhoods. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton have visited dozens of Indiana communities in their contest for Indiana's 72 delegates in Tuesday's primary, but they've spent little time in Indianapolis' black neighborhoods.Black community leaders say Obama's absence has been particularly galling to some blacks.Amos Brown, who hosts a radio show on WTLC-AM in Indianapolis, says that with 42% of the state's black voting population in Marion County, it's surprising that Obama hasn't made several visits to black neighborhoods.But he says...

RALEIGH, N.C., May 2 (UPI) -- Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been avoiding stops in black communities in his quest to become the first black major party nominee for the U.S. presidency. Isaac Onah, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina, told the Boston Globe that black voters appear to understand Obama's campaign strategy. They also understand why Obama had to repudiate his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Onah said. "I think black voters are saying to themselves, 'Why isn't Rev. Wright shutting up?'" Onah said. Obama hopes for a strong victory in North Carolina, similar...

Since January, the Clintons have pummeled Barack Obama with racially tinged comments and questions about his character. Hillary Clinton has questioned why he didn’t walk out on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.; why he “denounced” but didn’t “reject” Louis Farrakhan; and whether he is too chummy with the former radical Bill Ayers. She chastised his characterization of white working-class voters as being highfalutin and chided him for not agreeing to a street-fight-style debate. Bill Clinton has called Obama’s stance on the war a fairy tale, dismissed an early primary win as mere Jesse Jackson redux and recently claimed that Obama...

RUSH: You superdelegates in the Democrat Party, you're worried about denying Obama the nomination because you fear that your black voters will abandon you permanently? Come, come! Review your history with me once again. You Democrats have already done far worse to black voters than yanking the nomination away from Barack Obama. Have no fear, superdelegates. Be confident. Blacks will stay with you. So will Jesse Jackson, so will Al Sharpton

Jeremiah Wright speaking live now. Fascinating. You can also get it live streaming from CNN

The Rev. Al Sharpton is backing Barack Obama, but he's made the strategic decision to keep his support quiet. That's the message Sharpton delivered to his flock last Saturday as he boasted of talking to Obama "two or three times a week" - and insisted the Democratic front-runner knows the rev is in his camp. "I said, 'I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do to help you. Hillary Clinton has never done nothing for us,'" said Sharpton, recounting a conversation with Obama for his followers at his group's weekly rally. "'I won't either endorse you or not endorse you,'" Sharpton...