Obama Looks to Tip Scales by Boosting Black Vote

The Obama campaign’s national voter-registration effort has deployed 3,000 volunteers, with one major focus on expanding the African-American voter base dramatically. One volunteer hits the sweltering streets of Macon, Ga., with the Washington Post in tow. "You see how mentally shackled and jaded people are, because they've seen politicians let them down in the past," she observes.

If Obama wins 95% of the black vote, as predicted by polls, he’ll still need to increase black turnout over 2004 to have hope of winning swing states such as Florida and Nevada. The power of the black vote may be on most dramatic display in Ohio, where Obama would win by merely capturing 95% of blacks without adding a single voter.
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