re: #13 dragonfire1981

Well I do think it’s fair to say that Obama energizes black voters more than a white candidate would.

But I would also say Mitt Romney has given blacks really no good reasons to vote for him so what did you think would happen?

The black vote goes so overwhelmingly for the Democrats, and has for decades now, that Obama does only marginally better with black voters than Bill Clinton did. It’s not even about Romney, per se. Republicans know this, and truly, they don’t try that hard to tap the black vote. If Obama has an effect, it’s just more of the black electorate turning out to vote.

The real fantasy of course is that ‘white guilt’ is garnering him votes. I don’t know how many Americans there truly are who would have voted for John McCain, but instead decided to vote for Obama because he was black and they felt bad about that for some obscure reason, but the idea that they are legion appears to be a comfort to folks.