sattasarmahonline.com

Many people are  touting Hilary Clinton as the frontrunner and sure bet to win the Democratic presidential nomination. 

Barack Obama, Clinton’s biggest opponent, lags nearly 20 percentage points in the national polls behind the New York Senator.

Michael Flauntroy of the Huffington Post writes one reason for this gap is that Obama can’t lock down the black vote.

“The reality, however, is beginning to set in and it’s not pretty: Obama is beginning to look more like Howard Dean in 2003 rather than the rock star politician with the promise to remake American politics” Flauntroy says. “The phenomenon of 2007 likely won’t win the prize in 2008…And he can’t count on Black America to lead him to the nomination.”

Flauntroy says Obama is stuck between a rock and a hard place in terms of racial politics. He can’t make racial injustice a noticeable part of his platform because these issues are uncomfortable for many white voters. At the same time, he can’t ignore these issues because they concern black voters. Flauntroy describes Obama’s dilemma as trying not to be “too Black:”

“Black America too often holds Black candidates to an unfair standard of racial solidarity and purity. Most African Americans want identifiable, overt Blackness in their Black candidates. That is, of course, a recipe for electoral failure in statewide and national contests and Black Americans are slowing and grudgingly coming to grips with this political reality. They want Obama to be “blacker,” but he can only be as “Black” as Whites will allow him to be. Whites want to support Black candidates, but only those they see as ’safe.’ Black candidates deemed “scary” may have the same political positions as Obama, but can’t come close to a nomination. Obama’s dilemma in this regard is clear, but he has to figure it out very soon or he will be spending the early spring of 2008 putting salve on his ego, wondering what happened, and preparing to endorse Hillary Clinton for President.”