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"there is NO energy FOR Kerry in the African American community"

A good buddy of mine is very active in Philly politics and works extensively with black contractors and business men in the Philly area. He says the same thing. I asked him if Clinton's appearance in Philly generated any black support. He replied, "Did you see the crowd. It was pure white." I will be very interested to see if the rumours are true.

I voted in Land O Lakes, FL - about 15 miles north of Tampa. I don't have stats to back me up but I would figure the area/county (Pasco) leans right about 60/40 as a whole, maybe a little less.

Took me about an hour to vote - there were probably 200-300 people waiting at my precinct. I've only lived in the area two years so I don't have much to compare it to, but seemed to be a pretty good turnout so far.

"there is NO energy FOR Kerry in the African American community"

Man! This is so true. I teach in Compton, CA and the number of older Balck Republicans going to vote seemed to have come out the wood work! I have never seen so many "real" Black republican in my life. People in their 70's, 80's and 90's. Even the brotha's and sista's of voting age are looking sideways at John Kerry. I wrote Hugh Hewitt about this a couple of day ago in relation to some of my more 'hardcore' gang students I work with. Most of them boil it down to this; They look at Kerry and see that he is, (in their words) "a weak a_ _ Punk!"

They don't like the fact that they don't hear from "these fools" - (their words again) for 3 1/2 years and all of sudden when it's time for the "Black Vote" they appear mysteriously in our churches. I'm really amazed at all of this and truth be told it's about time we see things for what they really are.

As far as President Bush, they respect his strength first, but as they say, "This brotha (President Bush) is down for the cause!" They don't understand much about the political issues, but as they say: "I trust him to have my back before Kerry's ass anyday!" Whew! Why don't the pollsters come down this way?

I read the polls stating that about 18% of the black vote will go to President Bush this time around, up from 9% in 2000. Take it from this Black Republican teacher from Compton, CA those figures don't reflect the truth at all. It's got to be more than 25% or more. And if that's the case Bush wins by a landslide - this has got to be Kerry's worse nightmare!

It makes me sad to no-end that our people have been sold a mindset of utter dependency on a party that feels it can only show up in black churches in the last 30 days of a national election. I won't even speak on our "so-called black leaders". I'll start to hemorrhage and if I do, my students wouldn't understand why I'm bleeding all over the place. ;-)