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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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Don't Count Your Black Votes Yet, Barack

Voters look beyond skin color to track record

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(Newser) – Never mind his skin color—Barack Obama doesn't have a record that can guarantee black turnout, writes inquirer Harold Jackson. Prominent African American leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are still undecided, and Obama will have to court that constituency just like rival Hillary Clinton did.

Obama can give Hillary a run for her money, the column argues, but he has to show African Americans that he understands them; whispers about whether Obama is "black enough" may be shorthand for a worthy question. "They're really questioning whether he has been oppressed enough," Jackson writes. "Does he think like a person whose great-grandparents may have been slaves?"

Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are seen at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Awards Breakfast in Chicago in this Jan. 15, 2007 photo. On Thursday, March 29, 2007, Jackson said that Obama had his support on Election...
Presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are seen at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Awards Breakfast in Chicago in this Jan. 15, 2007 photo....   (Associated Press)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill speaks during a presidential forum on health care coverage, Saturday, March 24, 2007, in Las Vegas. The Forum was sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Service Employees International Union. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill speaks during a presidential forum on health care coverage, Saturday, March 24, 2007, in Las Vegas. The Forum was sponsored by the Center for...   (Associated Press)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill speaks during a presidential forum on health care coverage, Saturday, March 24, 2007, in Las Vegas. The Forum was sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and the Service Employees International Union. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill speaks during a presidential forum on health care coverage, Saturday, March 24, 2007, in Las Vegas. The Forum was sponsored by the Center for...   (Associated Press)
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