Word: blacking
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...Cherry's sentiment reflects the broader anxiety and frustration about Obama's candidacy that persists in many segments of black America. While the campaign has successfully increased voter registration levels among blacks, getting them to the polls is a very different matter. Cherry and others in the black community worry that the Obama campaign is too concerned with striking a moderate pose that puts white voters at ease and, as a result, is not working hard enough to get out the black vote...
...nation's estimated 26.4 million voting-age blacks are crucial to Obama's success. Black voter turnout in the Democratic primaries soared some 115% above 2004 levels, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which examines black issues. A record 70% of eligible black voters are expected to participate in the 2008 presidential election, a 20% increase from 2004. But the true test lies in battleground states like Ohio, Florida and Virginia, where blacks comprise a significant portion of the electorate. In Florida, for instance, blacks' share of the electorate is expected...
...Many political observers say Obama's campaign isn't doing enough to make sure that happens. The campaign has declined to discuss its black media outreach or even the basics of how it plans to get black voters to the polls, beyond one strategy it employed during several primaries: distributing flyers in salons and barbershops with large black clienteles. Rick Wade, the Obama campaign's senior adviser for black affairs, says simply, "African Americans are a crucial part of the Democratic base. They know what's at stake during the general election. We expect to see a tremendous turnout...
...black leaders say that's not a given. Among many black political observers, there is a pronounced sense that Obama's advisers have consciously distanced themselves from older black leaders who might galvanize prospective voters - especially in the many impoverished black communities where there is no tradition of voting as an obligatory civic duty. Ronald Walters, director of the University of Maryland's African American Leadership Center, says, "You can't send young volunteers into the hollows of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida with BlackBerries, reaching out to black voters, and expect them to do the same kind...
...Although the Rev. Al Sharpton has vigorously campaigned in North Carolina and Pennsylvania in recent weeks to motivate black voters, Sharpton says his efforts are "independent." In an interview with TIME last week, Sharpton said, "I'm doing it because I think it's right, because we're looking for Obama to be a crusader for social justice." But at the same time, Sharpton said, "You've got to use people that can draw a crowd. Otherwise, you're making this race a lot closer than it needs to be. You're not maximizing the enthusiasm of some of your...