We've already seen polls with Hillary getting as low as 55% of the black vote against McCain. Here's a diary that tells us Bill's "other stuff" comment the other day made things even worse:
From
DAILY KOSOverheard on the busby dmsilev
This morning, I took a bus ride to downtown Chicago (to see the Winslowe Homer/Edward Hopper special exhibit at the Art Institute; highly recommended). During the ride, a few of the passengers struck up a (loud) political conversation with the driver, and it was utterly fascinating to listen to.
For context, let me note that this was a local bus that wends its way through the South Side of Chicago. I'd say that roughly 95% of the passengers are black, as was the driver. Since I don't have a photographic memory, and since I'm not in the habit of recording people's conversations, I can't give verbatim quotations, but only some approximations and impressions.
The conversation, or at least the part that was loud enough that I had no choice but to listen to, started with what Bill Clinton said the other day, about how if Hillary and McCain ran, then it would be a race with two people who loved their country without the distraction of any of "that stuff". "That stuff" was universally interpreted to mean "race". And Bill Clinton was not looked upon kindly by these folks for what he said.
When the discussion turned towards politics in general, I heard a few people say that "there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between Hillary Clinton and John McCain", based mainly on their attitudes towards the Iraq war. The metaphor used was "If someone comes and breaks into your house, you're not going to like them. Well, we broke into the Iraqis house.". Obama's opposition to the war from the beginning was brought up, to general approval.
One person posited that "Barack Obama has been put on this Earth by Jesus, to show our attitudes towards race, and this is a great test", adding that his campaign was basically a referendum on racism. Someone else then said it didn't matter what your religion was, as long as you could look at Obama's campaign with open eyes. The first guy then got off the bus, with "God bless Reverend Wright" as his last line.
That set off a conversation about some chat-fest on MSNBC featuring 2 white and 2 black reporters, on which it was noted that Wright's style of preaching wasn't that unusual, but that it was not what "white folks" were used to, and hence the attention. At that point, the bus reached my stop, so I had to get off.
The first thought that comes to mind after listening to this extended conversation is that interest in the political campaign is pretty high. If a random cross-section of people think it's reasonable to have a detailed conversation about the presidential race with a bunch of strangers, including both broad themes and very recent events, high degree of interest is a safe conclusion.
Beyond that, if these folks are in any way typical, the Clintons have burned through an awful lot of goodwill in the African-American community. Bill Clinton's statement was taken as a direct attack on Obama, and it was being seen as a race-based attack. One person said something like "I used to think he was a good man" (that's close, but not precisely the wording used).
In a similar vein, there was broad agreement that many of the attacks against Obama were largely unfair, and largely motivated by race. It was felt that attacking someone for their race was un-Christian at best.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/23/161625/878/316/482777
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