Dear Sen. McCain:
                 I have long admired you as a Senator who does the right thing when it matters. I am politically a centrist. sort of social and fiscal moderate.  I believe that this election will be decided by centrist independents which you are basically on most issues. Here is what I would like to suggest to you to win the election:

1. Be yourself. Be Independent. Don't veer right.

2. Stay away from Race card. That is not what you are. Sen. Obama knows how to play the race card. He played it pretty well against Sen. Clinton. If GOP is seen playing it, you will lose moderates and lose election.

3. Emphasize Country first. Party next.  You may win
and even if you lose that would be a good fight.

4. Pro Life/Pro Choice issue: Most Americans are in the center on this issue. Emphasize how life is important AND
how Choice is important. How it is deeply personal thing.
Separate your religious belief from policy stance. If you donot play this issue well, you will lose. You must take a
practical stance on this issue. Pres. Clinton did a good
job on this. Neither enrage nor pander your base. Nobody
wants to kill babies and noone should tell woman what to
do on such a personal thing. Dogmatic stance wouldn't work on this issue.

5. Economy:  You must emphasize Economy. Select a solid
VP to make a case. Meg Whitman, Romney, Pawlenty would be great. You need an Exec who created jobs.  Empasize Government has a role but it is
not the answer. The best welfare is  that Government could 
create situations that will grow the economy to let you find a JOB. Goverment can do a lot but not everything. Adopt Clintonism. You will win the election.

5. Immigration: Emphasize rule of Law but also fair Immigration stance that allows Immigrants a chance to legalize. Country is very centrist on this issue. Celebrate the contributions of the
immigrants. Get Arnold and show him as an example. Donot let GOP indulge in fear mongering.

6. You CAN win this election if you come across as who you are. If you try to pretend as someone who you are not, you will lose the election.

7. Playbook to win the election:  Follow Bill Clinton: Centrist Moderate policies that emphasize Economy.
Sensible Taxcuts are fine. Senisble social net is fine.

8. Your Biography : Emphasize your biography: Your Service to your Political life in Senate. Let the GOP
spend the effort that makes the point: Your experience Vs. Sen Obama's 18 months in Senate. Your life experience Vs. Sen. Obama.

9. Social Security: Be honest about this: Democrats are wrong on this. Republicans are wrong on this. Privatization is not the answer. Tell the truth. Government cannot just pretend that there is a BIG Pot of money for everyone.
Tell the truth that you will work with all parties help stablize it. You believe that the best scenario is everyone works and contributes to the system.

10. Energy policy:  Make a case that we need everything.
Renewebles, Drilling, to Nuclear. Emphasize that your tax policies
will help Business investment in Renewebles.

11. Iraq: Admit the Bush failure in Rushing to War and Executing it. Point to how you worked to make it a success by arguing for policies. Emphasize how an abrupt withdrawl will signal to every nutcase in the world the weak America.
Emphasize how it is important that we get out with some
success.

12. On Pres. Bush: Emphasize how you opposed him when he is wrong and how you are different from him.

Whoever goes to Center without losing the party will
win the Election. You are in the Center whereas Sen. Obama is with the left wing of the Democratic Party. He is
making the move to the center oflate. He will not lose
his party.  Your job is to show him to be who he is without race/religious baiting  and emphasizing Economy and Country.  You are on the right message on Sen. Obama: Media enabled celebrity and Not Ready. Stick to that message

I was/is a great admirer of Al Gore. One of the sad
moments that I felt in my life is when he Supreme Court
 ruled against Al Gore in Bush V. Gore. 
I believe that he lost 2000 because of three things. Media bias, Ralph Nadar and Supreme Court. Media basically
hounded him and gave Gov. GW Bush a pass. It favored a lightweight over someone who prepared for the position all along. There is something in human nature and American Media that makes it to pull down someone who is well prepared/smarter person of the crowd.

Among the number of people associated with Pres. Clinton, your behavior during this primary is among the most commendable. Given some of the ill feelings that you had from 2000 (that Sen. Clinton took resources for her election fight in NY), I
wouldnot have been surprised had you stabbed her in the back like Gov. Richardson to Sen. Kennedy. You have announced that you will stay neutral and you did till the end.
It must have been tough given all the SF and Valley crowd  that you find yourself in these days is literally swooning for Sen. Clinton's adversary. You rose above the pettyness to betray. You did the right thing to let the things play out.  I believe that some who is not loyal to friends and the people who have helped you is not going to be loyal to the nation itself when it matters. He/She will be loyal to himself and his self interests. A sign of the character is to do the right thing even if it is against the wind. So, Al Gore - you are a class act.

As a wine swilling, well educated, male, resident of a well of a  liberal community, the media says I am not supposed to
 say a positive thing about you. Yes. I voted for you in 2000 for Senate. I was not enthusiastic about you before.
I saw you how hard you worked for the 2000 Senate campaign. My reaction was she wants power. Then, I saw you up close how hard you worked for NY. Yes. Sen. Chuck Schumer is as good in that regard. But, I never felt
that positive about you. I admired Pres. Clinton but not you
before. When you started running for Dem. nomination, it is fair to say that I was hopping for someone else to emerge to give you a fight.

But, all that has changed today. When I saw you working hard for NY Senate, my reaction was she wants power and she is cashing on her fame and built in advantages as a first lady.

During this primray: you are dealt so badly that my anitpathy melted away.  You withstood all your adversaries
and in my opinion, you have actually WON the Democratic nomination on merits. You won more states with Electoral votes. You won more BIG prize states. You won more votes. You are leading in more swing states. This is no mean achievement when most of the media is openly supporting your adversary.

1. So many of your friends stabbed you in the back at important moments in the primary race. ingrates and all..

2. Media: Yes. It is the most biased coverage that I have seen. Maybe the rightwingers are correct when they complain that Media is liberal.
Your words are twisted and interpreted in the most negative context. your every gaffe is blown out of proportion and your opponent is given a pass time and again. It is so grating to see again and again columnists
cranking out articles opposing you and supporting your adversary with all the double standards.

3. Racism : Yes, you may have won some racist votes. The
media kept pointing it out. But, it is more accurate to say
that you have lost 100s of delegates because of  Racism on
the part of African Americans. I hate  to say this as
someone who is always supportive of them. Whatever may be the faults of you and Pres. Clinton, you have tried to do
the right thing when it came to minorities and in particular African Americans. In my opinion, you have pandered to them and bent over back and courted them like on one before. Yet, they have abandoned you for a nominal African American. Racism is when you like or dislike someone just because of Race or skin color. So, it is racism that has costed you the number of delegates and
ultimately the nomination on technicality.

4.Blue color working class Male voters: I felt that you willnot get the male voter support. I am surprised that you won them state after state. Perhaps, they saw the working class roots in you behind all that exterior.

5. Young Woman: Yes, young woman didn't support you
in great numbers. But, you have done them a great favor. Donot be pushed over. Fight for what you believe in. Stand up and you will win. In many respects, you have WON on merits.  As a father of an young daughter, I thank you and salute you.

I liked Gov Dean when he ran in '04. But, I am quite disappointed in his management of Dem Primary in '08

As a DNC Chair he missed many opportunities to resolve the mess. We are at a point where the Democratic Nominee's legitimacy will be forever questioned without the
inclusion of two important states MI and FL. These two states have important Democartic voters. Labors, ethnic, Jewish, Hispanic, Black voters. Ignoring these voters in selecting your nominee when you considered thinly populated states like Utahs, Idhaho's, Dakotas in selecting your nominee doesn't make any sense.

1. RNC option. Why did Gov Dean use his judgment in atleast adopting RNC option of partial penalty.

2. Post Super Tuesday decision point:  Why did Gov Dean
fail to realize that we will have close race for Nomination ?
He should have gotten both Sen. Obama & Sen. Clinton along with Speaker Pelosi, Sen. Read and forced a
reaonable resolution.  His dislike of Sen. Clinton , perhaps,
influenced his thought process. Or is it that he wanted to favor Sen. Obama.

3. It is not too late. Come up with a plan to include MI & Fl. The goal is not to make either of the camps(C&O) happy. The goal is to do what is good for the party and the Dem voters. Without them, there will always be questions about the nomination process.  We donot want the lingering questions about the legitimacy of the nominee.

I recently read Sen. Obama's first book that he wrote after
law school.

This is a rare book by a politician who wrote it before entering politics. Obviously, you see the candor that is refreshing. He wouldn't have written the same book as a politician.

Sen. Obama is  a good writer. He wrote quite impressively at a number of places. You cannot read this book and be impressed with at least some of the things that he writes about.  I know quite well on a personal level about some of the experiences that he writes about. : third world, living as an outsider etc...

Obviously, it is his book. he sets the tone. he selects what he writes about and what he excludes. I suspect that he included most even some uncomfortable ones. A career
politician would not have not that.

My impressions :

1. Sen. Obama is a fortunate person with a mother, grand parents. (Gramps  and Toot). His mother comes across as quite impressive person. Sen. Obama owes his gift of language to his mom. Those English lessons that she taught
in early Indonesian mornings really made the man he is today. Gramps and Toot : What a wonderful people  !
They loved Sen. Obama very much. Sen. Obama is probably wrong when he said his grandmother is a 'typical' white woman. I guess that a typical white woman of 1960s is much different from 'Toot' Sen. Obama writes about.
Even his Indonesian stepfather Lolo loved Sen. Obama.
He taught him a thing or too to fight back..

If you look in Sen. Obama's face, you can see traces of his
grandfather (Gramps) army picture in the book.

Unfortunately, Sen. Obama's biological father whom he met only once comes across as rather complicated. He never
took care of Sen. Obama but his Kenyan relatives speak of him as a person given to sharing and kindness. He acted quite selfishly by abandoning an young mother and baby to
go to Harvad. Sen. Obama writes about this with a hint of
anger until he goes to visit his Kenyan family.

2. He chose to be an African American firmly at some point in Occidental college years in LA.  After that, you could see a gradual change in him - a sort of self awareness.
Perhaps, he recognized that the larger soceity sees him
as African American.

2. Community work in Chicago : 
    He was recruited into community work by Marty Feldman/Friedman  (SP?)
    The 3 years that he spent in Chicago doing community work are an eye opening experience to Sen. Obama.  This starts as a disappointing thing but he spends 3 years with some achievements to speak of. The woman of
community projects : they are impressive in their survival.
Your heart aches for all these black woman with kids and no father and you cannot but admire their will to survive despite the daily struggle.

Until Chicago years, he led a carefree/prosaic life, not much different from average Joe. You donot see the high minded high school/College Hillary in him. No visits to hear civil rights leaders or attempts to integrate your church etc...

3. His Kenyan stepsister and stepbrother visits during his
    Chicago years. His stepsister Auma is the link to Sen. Obama to his Kenyan relatives. She is quite impresive.

4. His visit to Kenya: He writes about Kenyan relatives in
    an understanding manner. For me, here is where he revealed his true heart. He didn't look down on their plight.
 He writes about them with a heart. at times he is too indulgent.

If I take some liberty and deduce from this book: Sen. Obama is likely to be fairly liberal - quite left of the center. He is likely to pro grovernment. A Sort of GWBush of the
left ? But, he also displays an open mind to listen.  If GWBush has a thin resume before WH, Sen. Obama has even thinner resume but much much much better life experiences.. though. Hopefully, he will be different..left version...

On better Blogs: Almost no one uses N* word and slams Sen. Obama. It is quite refreshing and it shows that we as a soceity moved beyond that low blow.

 Unfortunately, it is quite common to use BITCH word to slam Sen. Clinton among many other bad words. I find it quite disturbing and it is an indicator that we as a soceity are not comfortable with powerful woman. As a male in corporate world, I have noticed it quite often and to be honest, I have used it myself in my younger days. As a father of a daughter, oflate, I realize the unfairness of it all.

I am sad to come to the conclusion that we are indeed a 
SEXIST soceity.

Media and Racism :

When 90% of African Americans vote for Sen. Obama, the media takes it as natural and expected. No "Race Factor"
is brought up. It is never tagged as Racist behavior. After all, Sen. Clinton & Pres Clinton never lost an opportunity
to befriend/suck upto the Black community.

The Same media mavens lose no chance to bring up 'Race' factor every time Sen. Clinton gets 60-70% white vote. They brought up so called "Bradley" factor after NH
primary. After every primary, they bring up how rural, low
income whites are voting for Sen. Clinton and suggest that
"Race factor". 

 Racism in Campaigning : Media played up every ill thought
campaign rhetoric by Pres. Clinton and Sen. Clinton as Race card. Some of them are even taken out of context.
Clintons, for all their shortcomings, have a life long record
of fighting for and helping African Americans. If they can be
unfairly depicted as playing race card, can the normal
people will ever be honest when they talk about Race issues. I donot think even the fair minded and sensible people will talk honestly discuss race issues. Why run the
risk of being branded Racist this or that. ? This is quite
dangerous as it breeds hidden Racism out of fear. Good
amount of sunlight is what is needed for removing bigotry.

When Michelle Obama made a open appeal to African Americans by saying something like "African Americans better wake up and support their own" . These are not exact words. But, the intent is that Blacks must support
Sen. Obama when the polls (pre Iowa) are showing that
Sen. Clinton was getting their support. The media never carped on this being Racist.

My point is when Media ignores an overt Racist appeal by
Michelle Obama and plays up comments by Clinton campaign in most negative light, it fails to serve its mission.

Why is one Racism better than the other  in the eyes of the media ?  I am sad to say other than 'The News Hour' on PBS, none of the media is doing its job.

1.

 Note: I observed my daughter and her friends behave in a certain way and at times wonder where did they get that message. Culture, adult behavior ? Most of them are from well educated and middle class families and live in one of the most progressive places in the country. I wanted to write on what they can learn from Sen. Clinton's experience in this primary.

 ------------

Tenacity and Resilience:

Swimming upstream is difficult. But, the longer you survive, the stronger you get and you may succeed. Tenacity and Resilience really matters.

Dear Sen. Obama:

As someone who was quite impressed with your 04 Dem Con speech and jumped on your band wagon when you announced for Nomination race, I find it difficult to take your words on their face value. Eventhough I tempered my enthusiasm for you recently, I wanted to be open to vote for you if your are the GE candidate. I am not so sure anymore.

As a Social liberal, I take Civil Rights very seriously. I always championed Racial Equality and fair treatment for everyone. When I heard you in '04, I found it quite refreshing to hear an African American make a case for all
the right things. Now, I find it incomprehensible that the same man could sit in a congregation week after week and hear such harsh words. I abhor the notion of guilt by association. My first thought is that it is unfair to blame you for your Preacher's words. But, the more I think about it, the more I got disenchanted. You have a much stronger relationship with Rev. Wright as expressed in your words. Your association is 20 long years. That is too long in my book without being a fellow traveler.

Your speech is quite good at many points. I didn't expect you to disown Rev. Wright. It is a principled thing to do. You couldn't have done it.  But, When I read it 2-3 times, I found it politically calculating at many instances. You tried it explain Rev. Wright's Racism/bigotry away. A call for honest discussion of Racism !. I would have been impressed if you had made some attempts to convey the same message to Rev. Wright. By attending the same congregation for 20 long years, you must have tacitly approved of the message of Rev. Wright. His is not the message of love and forgiveness that Nelson Mandela expressed for his oppressors.

You are correct when you said in speech that this country made enormous progress and Rev. Wright is wrong in ignoring it.

You have also cynically referred to Geraldine Ferraro's comments into the same line as Rev. Wright. She is guilty of expressing a sweeping statement of equating all your success to 'race' once in a local newspaper that few have heard of. What you did is what a conventional calculating politician does. Look.. my opponent is devious too game.


You have shown no 'judgment' (that you are fond of claiming to have) on this until you are forced
to do so. It raises doubt about the sincerity of your message of change/hope/unity. I must say that the rhetoric of the speech is good but it is quite disingenuous.
This is not  Change we can believe in. Your are more of an ambitious politician who happens to be good at using words.  --- GM

It looks like the current conventional wisdom is
that things favor Sen. Obama if he were to be the Dems nominee in a McCain-Obama race.
The conventional wisdom will be proven wrong.  My (a Dem leaning independent ) gut feel says that Sen. McCain will prevail instead.

1. Resume/Experience factor

    Yes. It will matter in the General Election.  People will pay attention to it.
John McCain has a substantial resume/record. Even a  rank partisan would have to agree on that.
 Sen. Obama's resume/experience is thin. It will be much more obvious when seen against John McCain's. It is not considered polite when Gloria Steinam or Geraldine Ferraro complain that a woman with Sen. Obama's profile would have been run out of town and not taken seriously as a contender.  Republicans have the media/money muscle to make it stick.

2. Press/Media factor:
 
Sen. Obama benefited immensely in the Primary. The media (Both Print and TV) coverage of Sen. Obama until now is mostly positive. It will have to cool sooner or later. It may have already.  Any criticism until now is either ignored or tagged as playing race card.

The Media loves Sen. McCain as much as Sen. Obama. They would find it difficult to turn
against him. So, they would be more balanced.  People say they hate media etc, But, Media influences voters just by what they highlight or repeat. 

3. Independent/Centrist voters

In the General Election, these voters will see
that Sen. Obama is too liberal for them by looking at the vocal people behind Sen. Obama - the left wing of Democratic Party. The Republican media network is good at tagging the label on  Sen. Obama.

Sen. McCain on the other hand had a long history of crossing party lines. His reputation for being independent is well earned. Look at how Rush/Hannity et al have gone insane when Sen. McCain won in NH/FL primaries. 

4. Iraq factor: 

   In the Dem Primary, Sen. Obama made the most of his  'Iraq speech'.  Sen. Clinton failed 
to get any traction when she pointed out that 
Sen. Obama hasn't done much to followup in
the Senate. Sen. McCain will point out that he
has acted in the best interests of the country.
He opposed his own party more often on Iraq and actively supported 'surge' when he thought that is the best thing to do. The relative peace in Iraq will be seen (wrongly, I think) as that surge worked. My view is that Iraq is going through a classic civil war scenario where the minority( Sunnis) after a prolonged resistence is realizing the strength of the majority (Shias) and are likely to negotiate for a deal sooner or later.  People are likely to tune into Sen. McCain when he says that I am going to withdraw from Iraq responsibly. This is similar to what Sen. Clinton says and Sen. Obama will do despite his talk in reality. But, Sen. Obama's rhetoric in particular will be seen as irresponsible. 

5. Talk of Hope/Unity/Chnage: 

   Sen. Obama benefited from his Hope/Unity/Change speeches. They are until now seen as inspiring. But, the tide is likely to 
turn. They will be seen as feel good talk. After
you hear the same refrain umpteenth time, they will ring hollow not inspiring. Sen. McCain will
point out his real life inspiring story and that will appeal to the average voter more than Sen. Obama's speeches/life story.

6. Racial politics :

    During the primaries, the press played along 
with the notion that Clinton camp played race card for any campaign rhetoric that touched Sen. Obama's race/past.   In reality, Sen. Obama benefitted most from the Racial politics. The 85% or more vote in his favor by African Americans is quite crucial to some of his  wins.  Sen. Clinton got no benefit of doubt despite her and Pres. Clinton's life long commitment to Civil rights.  They are basically
checkmated on the race issue. They couldnot criticize it. It is fair to say that Conservative partisans will use it to appeal to some voters even if Sen. McCain stays  out of it. 

7. National Security Creds: 
    At the end of the day, this matters to a lot of 
    voters in the heartland. Here Sen. Obama is at a distinct disadvantage. Sen. McCain will checkmate Sen. Obama on this crucial factor. 

8. Swing States :  A number of swing states will be competitive again and favor Sen. McCain. NJ/PA/FL will favor Sen. McCain. CA will be competitive and be in the play and may even favor Sen. McCain.  KS, UT, NE, WY, Idaho etc will stay Republican. Sen. Obama's
wins in those states overstate his strength as they are dominated by Republican voters. 

8. Economy: 
                   Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain are not knowledgeable on Economic matters. So, I am not sure who will benefit on this. Sen. Obama could benefit if the Economy slows down too far.

Note: I generally vote Dem and have voted for every one - Woman, Hispanic Man for Senate, African American candidate for Gov, Men for every position. I preferred Al Gore over GWB

Being a social liberal, fiscal moderate, and a realist on national security, I find something to admire in all three of them.

I find Sen. McCain in particular deserves to be President. He is a great man. He paid his dues and served his country commendably. He, if elected, will no doubt be successful. He is in a
party that is currently dominated by conservative idealogues. That puts a damper on
my enthusiasm. I could foresee a scenario where I could vote for him in General Election. He will be my Pres. Teddy Roosevelt. Personality wise, my sympathies lie here.

Sen. Clinton was my Senator in NY and am well aware of  how hard she works. She is fairly a pragmatic person despite her reputation as an idealogue. She, if elected, will govern from the center on fiscal matters. She probably will be liberal on social issues like woman's rights, civil rights etc. On National Security, she is likely to be similar to Sen. McCain except for Iraq. She also paid her dues but not as much as Sen. McCain.  As a father of a daughter, I feel that a woman should have equal opportunities as a man. So, it grates me when i see the disparity in the treatment of her and Sen. Obama. Media is ,in particular, abusive of her as they were with Al Gore. She will be like Pres. Franklin Roosevelt or Sen. RFK. Their opponents hated them but they soldiered on.

Sen Obama's speech during 2004 Dem Convention appealed to be in the sense that the things that unite us are more consequential than the things that divide us. When he announced, I was rooting for him. He is obviously a motivated and talented man. But, of late, I have cooled on him. My belief is that he is being deceitful on Iraq when he claims that
he would have opposed the Iraq war resolution. On Iraq, he would be identical to Sen. Clinton regarding withdrawl of forces. i.e they would gradually withdraw but not a quick withdrawl that he is selling right now. He is too smart to know that a quick withdrawl will only compound the stupid actions of Pres. Bush.
It is a gut feel that is based on his Senate voting record. He is a calculated pol just like Sen. Clinton. The Media bias in favor of him also annoyed me in the sense that any unfairness annoys me. I am willing to overlook the fact that he hasn't paid his dues in the traditional sense by looking at the fact that he is fairly self made man which counts for a lot in my book. Eventhough it is not his fault, his supportes are quick to tag anyone with playing race card the moment you bring
 up anything from his past.  He is not
like any President that I know. He is something new that I cannot put my finger on because I don't have enough data points. If I am in my 20s, I would be in his cult. But having seen the world little longer, I know how the world works. Experience does matter.
 
Who should/would I vote ? Only time can untangle my dilemma.

During the weekend, we heard the first calls to Sen. Obama's supporters like Sen. Kerry and Gov. Richardson suggesting that Sen. Clinton to end the race if she fails to score wins on Tuesday. We can ignore Sen. Kerry. He basically dislikes Sen. Clinton despite Pres. Clinton campaigning for him. Well, That is
politics. Gov. Richardson is tough to understand. He was supposedly a friend of Pres. Clinton. His state went for Sen. Clinton. His community is voting for Sen. Clinton. My gut feel is that Gov. Richardson wants to endorse Sen. Obams but hesitating for reasons that I can guess.

What is the rush ? The Primary season is not over until June. There are states that deserve to
vote. Democrats in states as varied as Miss, PA, Puerto Rico do deserve to vote.  Why have a Primary Schedule until June if we want to shut
it down earlier. "Party unity" etc are basically
lame excuses.  The goal for Primary season is to see who will get 2025 delegates at the end of the Primary season i.e when the last state votes. 

Sen. Obama has proven to be strong enough. He has the resources to contest Primaries.
With the media behind him, he has nothing to lose.

Let the primary season go as planned. It will be all for the better.

One of the most startling things in this primary season is the African American vote. The community is voting 75-85% for Sen. Obama. This is understandable when the opponent is some right wing extremist. But against Sen. Clinton ? Her record from the earliest days is one of supporting African Ameican causes, Woman's rights, Civil rights etc. Some African American leaders realize this and support her. But, the community in general turned its back on Sen. Clinton. This is disheartening. What explains this ? Sen. Obama indeed, indentifies himself as an African American. African American community claims him as one of its own. We have to remember that Sen. Obama was raised by his White mother and White grand parents. In additon to Sen. Obama's own talents and motivation, his mother and grand parents deserve credit for his success.

Having said all of this: I wonder about African Americans 85% vote on the basis of pride in Sen. Obama.
It would have made more sense if a civil rights icon like John Lewis, or Andrew Young got 85%, if not 100% vote if they were to run.

How can you ignore Sen. Clinton's and Pres. Clinton's obvious committment to Civil Rights and long standing service to African American community. Note the signatature cause of Pres. Clinton's foundation. Fighting AIDS in Africa among other things.  Pres. Clinton's comments (Jesse Jackson winning in the primary ) during South Carolina Primary are considered upsetting to African Americans.  If you have read the whole Q&A that happenned with the CNN Reporter, the comment by itself
appears to be some kind of cutesy answer and not a some kind of race ploy. Even if you accept Sen. Clinton & Pres. Clinton made some thoughtless insensitive comments, you cannot give that as an excuse for the community to turn its back on Sen. Clinton. Perhaps, 60-40% split in the vote for Obama is to be expected.
I have not read a single article analyzing this honestly.

Pres. Bush for all his faults tried to reach out to African Americans. He appointed many African Americans to inflential positions. Even he didn't get more than 10% vote. This is before Katrina mess for which he deserves  blame along with Mayor Ray Nagin & Gov. Blanco.

What explains this enmasse vote by African American community for one Candidate or one party ?

The media in general appears to be afraid of discussing seriously anything that involves race. My assumption is that most of the white men who dominate the media are scared of being called racist if they say anything that is considered slighly upsetting.