How Hillary Clinton botched the black voteThomas F. Schaller, Salon
May 5, 2008 | 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 for the month following Super Tuesday, thereby preventing Obama from posting the 11 straight wins after Feb. 5 that provided him the pledged delegate lead he enjoys today? But beyond these questions, one little-discussed factor (with direct or indirect relation to all of the above) appears to have had fatal consequences for Clinton's campaign: She failed to mount a strong enough challenge to Obama's claim on the African-American vote.
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How Hillary Lost This Black Vote ( And Maybe Many Others)
TPM Reader Blogs: Boyd Reed/ Daily Kos: blitzburgh64
One of the most remarkable things about this Democratic primary season has been the almost complete defection of the African-American vote from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama. She started out with about 80% of the Black vote, but in the last two primaries, Obama has won 92% of the Black vote.
There are simple explanations (for example, Black voters are voting for a Black candidate). However, the truth is much more complicated. I don't pretend to speak for all Black voters, but I can definitely write with some knowledge about how my vote was lost to her. Perhaps, this discussion will also lead to some conclusions about how this massive swing occurred.
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