Black voters rally round Obama

WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- Black voters' enthusiasm for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama has made them increasingly protective of his presidential candidacy, campaign watchers say.

They have also turned their anger on those seen as undermining Obama or criticizing him,The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Tavis Smiley, a black writer, commentator and talk-show host, was publicly offended when Obama decided to stay on the campaign trail instead of attending Smiley's "Covenant With Black America" conference in New Orleans. He said he felt "barbecued" by the backlash from blacks.

"There's all this talk of 'hater,' 'sellout' and 'traitor,'" Smiley said afterward. "They are harassing my mama, harassing my brother."

President Bill Clinton, once known as "the first black president," has come under fire for disagreeing with Obama's policy proposals while campaigning for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who is hanging on in her campaign fight against the Illinois senator. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's former pastor, has been accused of trying to undermine the campaign by taking his case to the public.

Valerie Grim of Indiana University said that for blacks like her parents, who grew up in the segregated south, the Obama campaign means "the impossible might be possible."

"It represents for them a new day, a new opportunity to see that black people can contribute, on the ultimate level, to the social order," she said.