J. C. Watts Quotes

The relationship of black Americans to Obama is sociologically riveting.

To understand how Republicans lost the African American vote, we must first understand how we won the African American vote.

The black vote is always important, and the reason is it serves as a tremendous base for the Democratic Party. On the national level, Democrats traditionally receive at least 90 percent of the black vote.

People who bowl vote. Bowlers are not the cultural elite.

For longer than I've been involved in the political process, the Republican establishment has claimed to want to provide an alternative for the black community, yet party elite refuse to show up for the game.

We'll get out the [black] vote, but we need the white vote to win.

I want to make sure we have elected people constantly looking at helping the African-American community.

Most African-Americans really do believe that we are voting for our better interest in voting for Democrats.

A Black man voting for the Republicans makes about as much sense as a chicken voting for Col. Sanders.

All too often the Democratic Party has taken the black vote for granted, and all too often the Republican Party has written it off.

If you are a Democrat, and you get less than 90% of the black vote, you are going to likely lose your election.

And for far too long, the Democrats have had a monopoly on black votes in this country.

Many people who voted for Mr. Obama in the last election did so based on skin color.

Spaniards have always shown great maturity and great common sense when it comes to voting.

Anybody who runs for president in this country and comes out as strong as the Democrats were about helping the poor folks and black folks is not going to win.

Just because a black man is running the RNC doesn't mean black folks are going to, 'Oh, OK, I will be a Republican.' Just as with the election of President Obama. All the problems and concerns that are very important to African Americans don't get solved overnight.

I think there's a lot of the hip-hop crowd behind Barack Obama because he's a black man. Honestly, I'm rooting for Hillary because race is only going to go so far. All the presidents are men at the end of the day.

In 1975 I was among a group of blacks who formed the Black Americans in Support of Israel Committee.

Mr. Cain would structurally change the voting demographic. There would be more black economic conservatives, and the Democrats would lose their stranglehold on the black vote.

I think Black people need to take self-esteem seriously.

Governmental intervention and personal responsibility are not mutually exclusive issues, but they do frame a 'do it ourselves' vs. 'what are you doing for us' debate. For the black community, that's a debate that's been raging at least as far back as the W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington philosophical grudge matches.

My black brothers and sisters - of all religious beliefs, or of no religious beliefs - we all have in common the greatest binding tie we could have. We are all black people!

With respect to Barack Obama, let's face it; Barack Obama is an iconic figure in the African-American community. We respect that. We understand that. African-Americans are going to vote for the first black president, especially when he happens to share the liberal politics on economic issues that many in that community hold.

Hillary Clinton could say she was a woman and running for president. And Sarah Palin could say she was a woman and running for vice-president. But Obama couldn't say, 'I'm black and I'm running for president.' It couldn't come out of his mouth. He couldn't say that because, if he did, he'd lose votes.

I don't think President Obama has been that revolutionary in reaching out to ethnic communities. President Reagan did a lot for the black community that people don't realize.