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Phila. blacks offer Obama deep but not blind loyalty

Ahmed Aziz, standing outside McCoy's Auto Repair in North Philadelphia, needed but three words to describe how he's going to vote next week:

Monty G. Anderson (left) and other Clinton fans showed their enthusiasm for the senator as she greeted supporters near 52d and Chestnut on April 11.
Monty G. Anderson (left) and other Clinton fans showed their enthusiasm for the senator as she greeted supporters near 52d and Chestnut on April 11.Read moreJONATHAN WILSON / Inquirer Staff Photographer

Ahmed Aziz, standing outside McCoy's Auto Repair in North Philadelphia, needed but three words to describe how he's going to vote next week:

"Obama, Obama, Obama," the 58-year-old said emphatically. "I'm done with the Clintons."

Shop owner Saadiq Muhammed, 60, nodded his assent. "How could any black person," he wondered, "not vote for Obama?"

Twenty-four hours and 28 blocks away, Jackie Purnell, 60, offered an answer:

"She's sincere," she said, flush with excitement from having just seen Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during a rally at the West Philadelphia YMCA. "A lot of black people don't do their history. They say, 'Oh, it's a black man and let's vote for him.' To me, Obama just popped out of nowhere."

As Pennsylvania speeds toward Tuesday's Democratic primary, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign is hoping to pull off an unexpected, come-from-behind win - or at least deal the Clinton effort a hard blow by placing a close second. A CNN analysis had Clinton's lead down to 4 percentage points - before the flap over Obama's comments about "bitter" Pennsylvanians helped nudge the margin to 6. A Philadelphia Daily News/Franklin and Marshall College poll released Wednesday showed the same margin.

What's unchanged is that to finish strong, the Illinois senator will need heavy if not historic support from African American voters, particularly in the Philadelphia region.

He might not get it.

In interviews with local voters, it's plain that black support for Obama is deep, strong, heartfelt - but hardly universal.

"There are black people who have connections to the Clintons who are going to remain loyal," said F. Carl Walton, who teaches political science at Lincoln University, the historically black school in Chester County. "All black people are not going to vote for him because he's black. . . . At the end of the day, people are going to look at the issues."

For instance, Philadelphia's black mayor, Michael Nutter, has endorsed Clinton, saying "her priorities are the right priorities" for the city.

Some African American voters say having to choose between two attractive, history-making candidates is confounding. They're paying attention to the political ads now blanketing the airwaves, where Obama is outspending Clinton at least two to one.

Listen in on conversations among black voters, and you'll hear debates about whether America is more sexist or more racist. Listen in, and you'll hear plenty of talk about phantom sniper fire in Bosnia, little about the charged sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and worries about jobs and the future.

The Rev. Isaac Miller, 65, is pastor of the renowned Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia, long a center of social action. He was leaning toward Obama but still undecided as the candidate posted wins and near-wins in the early primaries. Now, Miller said, he's "seriously in his corner."

To Miller, the grandson of a slave, Obama represents the "second viable opportunity to step beyond race in this country. Of course, the first was with Martin."

He wants change: In race relations. In rich-poor divisions. In the way the United States exerts its military and economic might around the globe.

"Part of my hope for Obama is that people throughout the world will say, 'Well, the United States has decided it can step beyond bondage in relation to race in its country. Maybe they can step beyond bondage in relation to me.' "

At stake are 158 delegates in a state that seems tailor-made for Clinton, who draws support from blue-collar, women, and older voters. Pennsylvania has higher-than-usual union membership: 13.5 percent of wage earners, compared with 12 percent nationally. Only Florida and West Virginia have older populations.

More than half of Pennsylvania's voting-age adults are female. And while Philadelphia is 44 percent African American, statewide that figure drops to 11 percent.

Polls show Obama claiming 75 percent of the black votes in Pennsylvania.

"Obama is going to win the African American vote overwhelmingly," said political analyst G. Terry Madonna, director of the Franklin and Marshall College poll. "The question for me is, the big picture is, the percentage that he wins by and the turnout. That will decide and settle if he can carry the state or not."

An April 8 Quinnipiac poll found Obama making gains among women and whites, while increasing his support among men and blacks. But that was before he provoked an outcry by saying small-town Pennsylvanians had become "bitter" and "cling to guns or religion" out of frustration over lost jobs and failed political leadership.

There's no sign those remarks have hurt Obama among black voters.

"We have a breakaway candidate here," said Thomas Brogan, a political-science professor at Albright College in Reading. "It's like Kennedy in 1960. If you're Catholic, no matter what your economic status is, you're going to vote for Kennedy."

John Jordan, 44, disagrees.

The head of the Bucks County chapter of the NAACP predicted that among African Americans, "Clinton will definitely get her share of votes."

"This election has taken a turn where it's not a black-white thing anymore," he said. "People are going to vote on the issues" - gas prices, the economy, the war.

Still, it's impossible to overstate the historic importance of Obama to the black community - and how that drives support for his campaign.

"He represents the change that Dr. King wanted to see," said Kenyatta Johnson, a Democratic state House candidate from South Philadelphia and cofounder of Brothers for Barack. "This is more than an election; this is a social-change movement."

Last week, sitting on the steps of a rowhouse near 16th and Green, three city street cleaners took a break for lunch, their trio of brooms set aside for the moment.

Shannon Busey, 25, said he was tired of Clinton taking potshots at Obama. She attacked him for lack of experience, he noted, then said he would make a good vice president. "How can she say he's unqualified to be president, but qualified to be vice president?"

"Don't get me wrong, I think Hillary would make a good candidate," says a second worker, Steven Edwards, 42, "but I'm for Obama."

Last week in West Philadelphia, as the rally ended at the YMCA, Woodbridge James stood outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of Clinton. Nearby, supporters chanting, "Hill-a-ree! Hill-a-ree!" were drowned out by opponents yelling, "This is Obama country!"

James, 50, said he started out undecided but now supports Obama, who he thinks could better help the black community.

His neighbor, Garnett Banner, 54, walked over from the rally, her pink jacket adorned with a red, white and blue "Hillary for President" sticker. She had managed to give Clinton a hug - and now urged James to give the candidate a second look.

He wasn't buying. "Anyone can answer the phone at 3 a.m.," James said, "but can she make the right decision at 3 a.m.?"

They sparred back and forth, about the war, about experience, about Bill Clinton.

"She's been there before," Banner argued.

"Hillary wasn't the president. She just ran around with him, and she was mad at him most of the time," James said, as both dissolved into laughter.

"And she stuck with him," Banner said. "That's what I call a woman."