Michael – I disagree. The fact that 95% of blacks say they support Kerry or the Democratic nominee — or anybody but Bush — isn’t the relevant fact. What Democrats desperately need is for blacks to actually show up at the polls in numbers commensurate with their views. Even a slight downtick in black voter turnout would be deadly for the Democrats. The fact that Kerry probably strikes many blacks as even more patrician, elitist, haughty, rich and plain old “white” than George W. Bush can’t be good news for the Kerry campaign. Last week, when Kerry talked to his first major black audience he decided to roll out his plan for protecting chemical plants. This doesn’t strike me as the sort of issue that really turns out the black vote. I think if there was a good candidate, Kerry would be very smart to pick a black Veep. I just can’t think of anyone who’s sufficiently qualified or who isn’t too liberal or who isn’t a member of Bush’s cabinet.