WASHINGTON — Blacks are split down the middle over Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the presidential race, seeing both as on their side, a new poll says.
At the same time, blacks and whites have starkly different perceptions of Obama’s credentials, the Associated Press-Ipsos poll said Wednesday. Blacks are significantly more satisfied than whites that the youthful Democratic Illinois senator has sufficient experience to be president.
Many blacks seem torn between the two. Obama would be the first black president, while the Democratic New York senator and former first lady, along with her husband, is widely popular among blacks.
“I’m a black person, but that’s not the only thing I like about him,” said Raymond Monroe, 63, a retired production supervisor from Abilene, Texas, who backs Obama but says he might shift. “He’s young and has new ideas, but she’s pretty sharp, too. Instead of good old boys all the time, I think we need a change.”
Blacks make up about a tenth of voters overall. They are reliably loyal Democrats, voting nearly nine-to-one for the party’s candidates in the 2004 and 2006 elections. And while blacks are few in New Hampshire and Iowa, they comprise about half the Democratic primary voters in South Carolina, another early voting state.
Their allegiance is especially strong to the Clintons, which will help the New York senator, according several black leaders from around the country.
“It’s not so much Mrs. Clinton they’re backing, it’s that she’s married to the ex-president,” said Mayor Willie Adams Jr. of Albany, Ga.
In the late September poll, Clinton led Obama among whites by 35 percent to 18 percent. Blacks were essentially evenly divided, 40 percent for Obama and 38 percent for Clinton. Among all Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, Clinton led by 35 percent to 23 percent. All those measurements have been steady for months in the AP-Ipsos poll.
Faced with choosing between two potential White House firsts — the first black president or the first female — black women split 47 percent for Clinton, 37 percent for Obama. Clinton has led decisively among all women nationally.
Black men leaned toward supporting Obama over Clinton by 44 percent to 28 percent, and he had an edge among younger black voters — the opposite of her lead among all men and young people. He also gets stronger support from college-educated blacks — one of the few areas where he leads Clinton overall.
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