The Black Elephant in the Room: How Barack Obama Unwittingly Put African Americans in Play for the GOP

Barack Obama's historic 2008 election as leader of the free world met with great fanfare from the South Side of Chicago all the way to slums in Soweto, South Africa. While propelled to the White House by a myriad of voters of all backgrounds, statistically, however, none was more supportive than black Americans--including some black Republicans crossing party lines--who voted in record numbers, giving him close to 100% of their votes. In 2012, Obama once again tried stirring up black Americans to vote when polling suggested a decline in groups who'd backed him the first time, including independent voters and women. Despite a drop in their own enthusiasm for his job performance, the 'get out the vote' strategy worked, as once again, black voters obliged and helped to push Obama over in key states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. But what, in turn, did black Americans get for those votes other than the pride of seeing a black family in the White House? Black Elephant explores how Barack Obama's attention to his other liberal constituencies has arguably left many black Americans out in the cold and surprisingly made it easy for a savvy and resurgent GOP to re-capture a vote that it once owned and possibly change the dynamics of future elections in the country.