NEWS ALERT STOP THE PRESSES BUSH LOSES BLACK VOTE!!!

The headline lead in reads

President's handling of the war cools support among black voters

and Terry Neal writes that

with less than six months until Election Day, it appears that Bush's handling of the war in Iraq has reinforced among black voters some of the worst impressions of the Republican Party.

Uuuh, yeah . . . so what?

In fairness, Neal actually does a (for the Washington Post) decent job of countering liberal spin (especially debunking Charles Rangles claim that the war is disproportionalty killing off black men) but he still can't get beyond the fact that a breakdown of the electorate as white/non white is much, much, much different than a breakdown along the lines of white/black. That Liberal Media explores this interesting dynamic as the WashPo continues its mission for 100% diveristy nationwide.

Of course, by an overwhelming ratio Blacks as a whole don't vote for Republicans - preferring instead the party of segregated schools, slavery, lynchings, and the KKK - and as a percentage of the U.S. population have now fallen to number 3 and will likely be passed by both Asians and Arabs before all is said and done. Which makes this entire column, and my entire rant mostly irrelevant.

To give Neal even more credit though - he does a good job of pointing out that blacks ought to be voting for Bush in much greater numbers

Many black voters are culturally conservative, with strongly held Christian values that put them in line with the Republican Party, especially on issues such as same-sex marriage, school vouchers and partial privatization of Social Security.

He is also discussing this issue right now, in his weekly online chat


Yet on a host of other issues—from social justice to affirmative action to economic policy—black voters tend to go the other way.

Bush only got about 9 percent of the black vote in 2000. But various voter attitude polls suggest that many more blacks should be interested in the GOP, based on the strain of social conservatism that runs through their communities.
For instance, on the issue of gay marriage, there is a raging debate, as you may know, among blacks on this issue: Many feels strongly that gay marriage is a civil rights issues. Many others feel just as strongly that it is morally wrong and should not be legalized. Blacks, like whites, are not monolithic on this issue. But Republicans almost certainly will get few votes from these socially conservative blacks because of their positions on a host of other issues. These issues overshadow those areas of mutual interest.