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I guess the Post has to do this kind of story, but anecdotal evidence that some area blacks won’t support Barack Obama because of his newfound support for gay marriage is really useless. What would be useful is polling data, and I’d be shocked if Obama took even the slightest hit among black voters.
And let’s be real here—there’s no way D.C. or Maryland is going to Mitt Romney, and even Virginia is leaning a bit blue. Obama’s approval rating among black voters is in the high 80s, Gallup reports.
Really, the only way black voters could hurt Obama is by staying home—but you can bet that Obama’s get-out-the-vote plans are taking this into consideration. Relatedly, the D.C. NAACP is kicking of a local voter registration drive, the Informer reports, in an bid to register 5,000 minority voters. And of course, even if black turnout in the District plummeted, Obama would still almost definitely win the three electoral votes we’ve got.
Also worth noting: Back in 2008, when California’s Prop 8 failed, the media was quick to blame black voters for torpedoing the marriage equality measure—even though we know now that was an exaggeration, to say the least.
Photo via the White House