It's certainly too early to pin down the precise reasons why Obama apparently carried about 80 percent of the black vote. But in my latest TNR piece I've tried to explain why Hillary's early support among blacks nationwide might have been something of a mirage from the start.
Some of the key points: Bill Clinton was first elected by using black America as a foil (remember Sista Souljah and welfare reform); had what some black leaders consider a mixed record on race; and Hillary lacked her husband's famous stylistic appeal to African-Americans. (No one ever called her the first black First Lady, after all....)
--Michael Crowley