But at the Jan. 11 Black & Brown Coalition debate on MSNBC, Dean's stated desire to be a racial healer invited ridicule from Sharpton, who said that Dean would have to do "more than just talk" about race, and pointedly questioned why Dean had not appointed any person of color to a cabinet post in 10 years as governor of Vermont.

Dean, looking distinctly uncomfortable during the exchange, noted that "a senior member of [his] staff" was a minority. And, Dean said, he had more endorsements from black and Latino candidates than any other Democratic candidate, an assertion that Sharpton ridiculed.

"I think you only need cosigners if your credit is bad," he said.

While Dean's selling point has been his forthrightness, Clark and Edwards, both Southerners, have each borrowed a page from Bill Clinton by basing their argument to black voters on their own modest upbringings and their formative experiences with race and racism. Clark is also stressing his background in the Army -- one of America's most racially diverse institutions -- and has spent heavily on television ads featuring testimony from retired Maj. Patricia Williams, a former colleague who is African-American.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, too, has been able to point to the interracial bonds he formed during his military service in Vietnam, and also emphasizes his progressive legislative record. Lieberman talks about his experiences marching for civil rights in the 1960s. U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt talks about his record in the House, and of his close alliances with heavily minority unions.

It's too soon to tell if these strategies are working.

The flare-up at the debate is only the latest incident in which Dean's ability to appeal to black voters is being called into question. A running theme of the media's coverage of Dean -- to Dean's irritation -- has been that his following, at least visibly, remains overwhelmingly white.

As the New York Times wrote of Dean's efforts to attract more of a diverse following: "[Dean] was not active in the civil rights movement, and has neither the political network of black ministers and community leaders nor the personal relationships that have helped other white candidates. His campaign's heavy use of the Internet has largely bypassed poorer pockets of African-Americans and Latinos, and issues like crime, drugs and failing public schools have not been centerpieces of his message."

But measuring by an ability to attract African-American followers to events, none of Dean's competitors has been significantly more successful. At an event in Harlem several weeks ago for Clark, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., announced his endorsement for Clark and introduced a number of elected minority officials from New York City to do the same. Virtually all of the VIPs at the front of the room -- an impressive group that included veterans of the Harlem Hellfighters and Tuskegee Airmen, celebrated black military units from an era before integration -- were black or Latino. The audience was almost entirely white.

There are a number of possible reasons for the lack of discernible movement among black voters. One is that minorities, along with the majority of voters in the 48 states that vote after Jan. 27, have simply not been engaged yet because of the focus on Iowa and New Hampshire. Another is the closeness of the candidates on issues of importance to those minority voters. And yet another is simply that African-Americans, like so many other Democratic voters, are simply looking for the best general election candidate to run against President Bush.

"I think black voters fall into that 30 percent of American voters that are not going to vote for George Bush under any circumstances, and there are not huge differences among the Democratic candidates," said Wayne Parent, a professor at Louisiana State University who co-edited the book "Blacks and the American Political System." "Therefore, if you're an Anybody But Bush person, and you're in a situation where there's no bad candidate and there's no outstanding candidate, you probably just tend to wait it out."

Though the District of Columbia is largely black, its reduced field and expected low turnout means that it will likely provide little more than a symbolic lift to the winner. It may not be until after South Carolina and Michigan that African-American voters coalesce around a candidate.

Even the endorsements of prominent African-American officials touted by each campaign provide little guide. Dean has Jesse Jackson Jr., among other members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Clark has Rangel and civil rights leader Andrew Young. Gephardt has South Carolina's most prominent black official, James Clyburn. And so on.

Not only are prominent endorsements spread among the candidates, but many experts also feel that the impact of endorsements on a primary election is somewhat limited in any case. "One thing we've learned from recent elections is that support from black leadership is important in terms of turnout, and maybe goosing the vote a little bit in their area, but isn't as important as it once was in terms of swaying the vote," said Parent. "I know for fact that when black leaders support one Democratic candidate from a list, that candidate doesn't necessarily go to the top. And compounding that this year is that those endorsements are all over the place."

So what would it take to galvanize the black vote? As far as some Democrats are concerned, the most important thing any candidate can do right now to win broad support from African-Americans is simply to show an ability to win in November. "This is a sophisticated electorate," said Hollowell, the Michigan party chair. "The country as whole has suffered under this president, but the Africa-American community has really been damaged by George Bush's policies ... You have to be able to convey that you believe in advocating issues that will lift up this community, but at the same time, people want to know that you can take those ideas and win with them. I think the most effective candidate is going to win the support of the African-American community."

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