Almost twelve of them, to be exact. While the content of this article may have some value, it is incidental to the data on which it bases its observations. The article assumes that there is a great deal of doubt among black Democrats in South Carolina, based on its sample size of “almost a dozen.” The challenge is enumerated in an AP article reprinted on the WaPo website entitled “Obama Faces Challenges Among S.C. Blacks”.

The candidacy of the 45-year-old Obama elicits genuine excitement in a state where blacks comprise about half of the primary electorate. Yet coupled with that emotion is a strong degree of skepticism about the freshman senator’s experience and whether he can win.

Obama also is up against the formidable Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democratic front-runner who enjoys strong support in the black community and is married to former President Clinton, who is wildly popular in the community.

The Associated Press interviewed Democratic voters across the state, including about a dozen blacks, and found evidence of excitement and doubts.

I don’t know what social scientist would find that kind of a sample size reflective of anything. The number of people they interviewed barely broke double digits, but since they’re black, and the conventional wisdom is that all black people think alike, some hapless editor at the Associated Press let this through. What is equally unbelievable is that the Post decided to re-print it. And what is about a dozen? did they interview a few of my mixed brothers and sisters and decide to count them based on a DNA swab?

Here’s a better question, since we’ve heard so much about how important black voters are to the primary in South Carolina, why could the AP only find twelve of them to speak to?

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