Friday, January 18, 2008

Southern Blacks split over Clinton and Obama

This is good news in the American political landscape. African Americans need to become politically mature. That means that as a group they exert leverage within the Democratic Party and also throughout the general election. The best way to do that is to demonstrate that you are actually responding to events on the ground and to the candidate's message. If the votes for African Americans are truly up for grabs between Clinton and Obama it will help all African Americans because both candidates will compete to get a lion's share of the vote. You will find competition is the reason America is great. It will also be the reason a voting bloc improves its' lot in American politics:

From the New York Times:

Across the South, a fierce competition is afoot for black voters, who are expected to constitute 20 percent to 50 percent of voters in the South Carolina Democratic primary on Jan. 26 and in the four Southern states with primaries on Feb. 5: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and Tennessee. In many counties, registration has spiked since Mr. Obama won the Iowa caucuses, and election officials say interest is at its highest point in several election cycles.
While the official ground game is just beginning, chatter about the two candidates — both of whom have substantial claims to African-American support — is constant on black radio shows and e-mail lists and at barbershops. Officials and ministers are coming forward with last-minute endorsements, and campaigns are buttering up the activity directors at centers for the elderly. Both campaigns have opened or will open offices this week — the Clinton camp in Nashville, the Obama camp in Little Rock, Ark., in Memphis and two each in Alabama and Georgia.

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