North Carolina Black VoteObama - 91%
Clinton - 6%
Indiana Black Vote
Obama - 92%
Clinton - 8%
The Clinton campaign has persistently argued that Obama is not electable because he cannot win with blue collar white voters. Consistently and deliberately ignored in this discussion amongst the pundits, many bloggers and the Taylor Marsh Obama Haters faction is a simple fact: Democrats don't win national elections without the black vote. Period. Full Stop. Everyone has been focusing on the Wright distraction and how Obama supposedly can't get white voter support, while explicitly avoiding a serious discussion of the reverse problem for Clinton, who is losing the black vote by increasingly larger margins. Even tonight, the talking heads are still avoiding a serious discussion of the implication of this fact for Clinton and for the Democratic Party. Clinton supporters and surrogates and the Obama haters like Taylor Marsh are wont to say that Obama has a question mark with the democratic party's base of white lunchbucket voters, as though black voters are not one of THE most critical and reliable elements of the democratic base. As though our participation is incidental, inconsequential in comparison to the lunch bucket white voter, and it is not. Unlike these blue collar white voters, who might abandon the party for McCain if they are discomfited by the racialized attack themes against Obama, black voters have loyally voted with the democratic party at a high percentage. Mishandling such a loyal voting bloc would be a fatal mistake.
Tonight, black voters delivered a very clear message to the Democratic Party about Hillary Clinton's electability and the electability of democratic candidates around the country potentially sharing a ticket with her. She can't win in November without the black vote and she doesn't have it. I blogged earlier today about Black America's nuclear option, the withholding of our vote. The black vote performance for Obama in Indiana and North Carolina put that deterrent on full display for the super delegates. They ignore it at their peril.
