Text size:

Some black NYers not enamored with Obama

By David Freedlander, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

August 19, 2008

Unmotivated by the chance to elect the first black president, some New York black voters say if a President Barack Obama wins in November, it won't be with their support.

"The issues are what's important to me," said Daystar Chou, a member of the Green Party from Flushing, and who like Obama, is of mixed race.

"If he came out on the right side of the issues I would support him. Bush, as wrong as he was, put Condi Rice and Colin Powell in high places. I'm not proud of them either."

The reason some black voters don't support Obama mirror those of the rest of the electorate who don't support him. For some, he is too liberal. For others, like Chou, he is too conservative. And yet for others, he is just simply no Hillary Clinton.

"My mailman might as well run for president," said Jesse Cleaver, 35, of the East Village, who volunteered for Clinton. "I'd like a black president but he has no other qualifications. He said Clinton played the race card. That's ridiculous."

A New York Times/CBS News poll last month showed the Illinois senator with an 89 to 2 percent lead over Sen. John McCain among blacks, and many political experts say they expect that margin to grow before Nov. 4.

Even if Obama weren't running, McCain might well do worse with black voters than George Bush in 2004, who garnered 11% of the black vote in his contest against John Kerry, according to David Bositis, an expert on black voting patterns at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

"Believe it or not, John McCain makes George Bush look like a soul brother. McCain has no connections to the African-American community. None," he said.

He added that with Obama running turnout among blacks is expected to rise by large margins this year.

Cleaver and others say they are among the few blacks they know not lining up behind Obama, and that family and friends are pressuring them to support the first black American with a credible chance of becoming president of the United States.

"Let's be honest folks, it's not easy to be a black Republican," said former Pittsburgh Steelers star and Pennsylvania senate candidate Lynn Swann at gathering of black Republicans earlier this month in Manhattan. "And it's especially not easy right now."

Bryan Cooper, 41, who is running for state Assembly in the 74th district on the Republican line, said he hears it all the time.

"People are like, 'Bryan, what are you doing, don't you know this guy's a brother,'" he said. "But I just can't do it. I don't know this dude. McCain's a Navy guy. I'm a Navy guy. I'm going to stick with my own."

Still he conceded that should Obama pull it off, he'd accept it be glad history was made.

"It won't happen with my support but if he's win, yes, I have to say, it really would be nice," He said.