Notes From D. R.

Will the press knock it off with these stupid stories about black voters being skeptical of Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama?

Let’s face it: if Obama is on the ticket as either a Presidential or a Vice Presidential candidate, nine-tenths of the American black electorate will support him, just as they have supported every Democrat Presidential candidate since LBJ.

The press promoted this same theme last year during Deval Patrick’s bid to become governor of Massachusetts. For a time, the Bay State press corps pushed the notion that Patrick would have difficulty wooing black support because a man of his wealth and privilege would be perceived as being "out of touch" with the concerns of "average" black voters. Once it became obvious that most blacks actually loved the guy, the press stopped pushing this theme.

Obama is a left-wing die-hard Democrat. That’s all the "street cred" he needs with the "community." Come on–black voters turned out in droves to support the Gore-Lieberman ticket in November 2000, even though Lieberman was an erstwhile critic of certain forms of affirmative action! If that wasn’t enough to stop blacks from supporting the Democrat ticket, Obama’s lineage certainly won’t be a barrier.

The mainstream media need to quit playing. Everyone knows the only thing that would stop the vast majority of American blacks from voting for Obama is if he decided to pursue the Republican nomination.

UPDATE: More from Captain’s Quarters, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe.