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Strategists believe they've identified a new and potentially decisive Democratic electorate - Black Voters - in at least five battleground states. The trick lies in wooing them without alienating whites.
Barack Obama's campaign strategists are quietly laying plans to draw African American voters to the polls in unprecedented numbers by capitalizing on the excitement over the prospect of electing the nation's first black president.
Wow! The first explicitly racist presidential campaign in US History. That's our Barack. Targeting Black voters, but careful now, Barack. Don't alienate those whites!
Quote:
"I think the numbers are going to be astonishing," said Florida state Rep. Joseph A. Gibbons, who heads the state's black legislative caucus and has been discussing the strategy with leading Democrats.
John Bellows, a database expert in the Obama campaign, said he had already identified "big pockets of potential voters" in key states. "There are pretty big numbers lying around to turn out," he said.
The strategy requires a deft touch and carries risks, however.
Quote:
Strategists say he cannot afford to appear to be exploiting race or running solely as a black candidate -- particularly as he courts moderate whites and blue-collar workers who did not support him in the primaries.
So it's important for Barack to keep fooling the white people who support him.
Quote:
"It's a sensitivity," said Ronald Walters, "You've got to have a black strategy, but it has to be a biracial strategy."
Party strategists believe that Obama's competitive showing in primary contests proves that the approach will work. In some primaries, notably North Carolina and Virginia,he ran strong among white voters, but his victory margins came from drawing blacks, including new African American voters, to the polls in overwhelming numbers.
Major get-out-the-vote efforts in 2004 managed to increase black voter turnout just 3 percentage points, to 60%, compared with 64% of voters overall. Obama's campaign believes it can far surpass that this time.
David A. Bositis, an expert on black voting trends at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, predicts that turnout could rise by as much as 20%, and some Democratic strategists feel they can spur black turnout in the battleground states to as high as 75% of registered voters.
"This will be a completely new precedent," said Bositis. "This year we're going to be looking at record territory, and this will be a level of black turnout that's never been seen before."
The pursuit of black voters is part of the Obama campaign's broader strategy of targeting constituencies that have been underrepresented in past general elections but that proved crucial to his victory over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
But why stop there? Here's another untapped voting block: CRIMINALS!
Quote:
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist last week announced that, thanks to a new rule he enacted, about 115,000 felons who had completed their sentences had become eligible under his administration to have their civil rights restored. Liberal groups such as People for the American Way hope to track down even more who could have their rights restored in time to permit them to register and vote in November.
Way to go, barack! Get those criminals to vote you into the White House.
Quote:
Experts say felons are disproportionately black and, if they can be found, are more likely to be Obama backers. This provides a huge potential; about 1.1 million felons in Florida were ineligible to vote in 2004, according to a 2006 book by sociologists Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen. Here too the potential for gains has risk: It could open a door for Republicans to portray Democrats as soft on crime.
The push for new and nontraditional voters is so targeted and aggressive that an NAACP official in Ohio said her organization plans to pursue individuals who are incarcerated but who have not yet been tried or sentenced and, therefore, under state law, remain eligible to vote.
Why wait until rapists and murderers get out of jail?.. Recruit them now, Barack. They can vote for you AFTER they're convicted but BEFORE they're sentenced! Barack Obama - a NEW KIND of politics...
Barack Obama's campaign strategists are quietly laying plans to draw African American voters to the polls in unprecedented numbers by capitalizing on the excitement over the prospect of electing the nation's first black president.
Wow! The first explicitly racist presidential campaign in US History. That's our Barack. Targeting Black voters, but careful now, Barack. Don't alienate those whites!
Quote:
"I think the numbers are going to be astonishing," said Florida state Rep. Joseph A. Gibbons, who heads the state's black legislative caucus and has been discussing the strategy with leading Democrats.
John Bellows, a database expert in the Obama campaign, said he had already identified "big pockets of potential voters" in key states. "There are pretty big numbers lying around to turn out," he said.
The strategy requires a deft touch and carries risks, however.
Quote:
Strategists say he cannot afford to appear to be exploiting race or running solely as a black candidate -- particularly as he courts moderate whites and blue-collar workers who did not support him in the primaries.
So it's important for Barack to keep fooling the white people who support him.
Quote:
"It's a sensitivity," said Ronald Walters, "You've got to have a black strategy, but it has to be a biracial strategy."
Party strategists believe that Obama's competitive showing in primary contests proves that the approach will work. In some primaries, notably North Carolina and Virginia,he ran strong among white voters, but his victory margins came from drawing blacks, including new African American voters, to the polls in overwhelming numbers.
Major get-out-the-vote efforts in 2004 managed to increase black voter turnout just 3 percentage points, to 60%, compared with 64% of voters overall. Obama's campaign believes it can far surpass that this time.
David A. Bositis, an expert on black voting trends at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, predicts that turnout could rise by as much as 20%, and some Democratic strategists feel they can spur black turnout in the battleground states to as high as 75% of registered voters.
"This will be a completely new precedent," said Bositis. "This year we're going to be looking at record territory, and this will be a level of black turnout that's never been seen before."
The pursuit of black voters is part of the Obama campaign's broader strategy of targeting constituencies that have been underrepresented in past general elections but that proved crucial to his victory over New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
But why stop there? Here's another untapped voting block: CRIMINALS!
Quote:
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist last week announced that, thanks to a new rule he enacted, about 115,000 felons who had completed their sentences had become eligible under his administration to have their civil rights restored. Liberal groups such as People for the American Way hope to track down even more who could have their rights restored in time to permit them to register and vote in November.
Way to go, barack! Get those criminals to vote you into the White House.
Quote:
Experts say felons are disproportionately black and, if they can be found, are more likely to be Obama backers. This provides a huge potential; about 1.1 million felons in Florida were ineligible to vote in 2004, according to a 2006 book by sociologists Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen. Here too the potential for gains has risk: It could open a door for Republicans to portray Democrats as soft on crime.
The push for new and nontraditional voters is so targeted and aggressive that an NAACP official in Ohio said her organization plans to pursue individuals who are incarcerated but who have not yet been tried or sentenced and, therefore, under state law, remain eligible to vote.
Why wait until rapists and murderers get out of jail?.. Recruit them now, Barack. They can vote for you AFTER they're convicted but BEFORE they're sentenced! Barack Obama - a NEW KIND of politics...