Weighing in on polls that show black voters dramatically swinging closer to Obama's view on same-sex marriage, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page says that most will decline to scrap their other political concerns for the sake of a single issue.
Conservatives warned, often with glee, that President Barack Obama's support for same-sex marriage would spark an African-American backlash. But guess what? Polls show black voters dramatically swinging closer to Obama's view.
Black voters, for reasons heavily related to religious views, have in the past been more conservative about same-sex marriage than national averages. New polls indicate that Obama's gay-marriage support may do more to help the cause than hurt his popularity.
A new ABC/Washington Post poll released Thursday found a new high of 59 percent of African-Americans say gay marriage should be legal. That's up from an average of 41 percent in polls leading up to Obama's recent announcement that his position had "evolved" into support for the right of gays and lesbians to legally marry.
That surge among black voters helped push support among Americans overall to 53 percent, a dramatic increase from six years ago when only 36 percent supported same-sex marriage.
Read Clarence Page's entire column at the Chicago Tribune.
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