From the LA Times:
While blacks are expected to solidly back Mr. Obama again this year, he faces challenges in generating the same enthusiasm as in 2008. The level of black turnout could be especially crucial in states like North Carolina and Virginia, where black voters had an outsize influence in the president's relatively narrow victories four years ago.... One factor in the president's favor may be that as a result of his success and that of other black politicians, the size of the minority electorate has grown, said Katherine Tate, a political scientist at the University of California, Irvine. "Black voters are regularly participating in politics nowadays because of their elected numbers in government," she said. "An African-American member of Congress once said that because of Obama his mother now watches cable news regularly and talks to him regularly and heatedly about policy matters."

For the full story, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/us/politics/romney-courts-black-vote-a....