[bill1952]

Good points, but I suggest that racism still is playing a large part.

It is a racism of convenience with plausible deniability prefactored in, but nobody would seriously consider that these black politicians would be making these statements or bucking the Demorat/Clinton machine if the challenger was say, Lieberman or Zell.

[kabar]

Black politicians are switching to Obama because they now think he can win. In the beginning, it looked like Obama was just the next token black the Dems feel compelled to place in the primary process to reward their most loyal constituency. Lo and behold, it looks like he is going to be the nominee. The world loves a winner.

It doesn't hurt that the 44 members of the Black Caucus, except Obama, come from mostly black districts. They need to reflect their constituents who are overwhelmingly supporting Obama. The super-delegate vote is public so their constituents will see how they voted. This is not racism so much as it is politics.