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Reading through the Chicago defender, I came across this interesting article: "Blacks urged to form independent political movement". The following quotes caught my attention. They illustrate African American's growing disappointment with the Democratic Party.

...Jesse Jackson Sr., a two-time candidate for president on the Democratic
ticket, acknowledges that African-Americans are getting shafted by
Democrats.

...However, Jackson stopped short of calling for Blacks to leave the Democratic
Party. But Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam argues that
African-Americans are not being respected by either Democrats or Republicans and hinted that he might launch an independent candidacy for president in 2008.

Notice that Farrakhan is not aligning himself with either the democrats or republicans. This will [in my opinion] help him in wooing a lot of disenchanted black voters from the Democratic Party. Unlike the route taken by the good reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Does he stand a chance? I don’t think he do; but the end result will be to make Democratic Party realize who their ardent constituency is and to work on the issues affecting these constituents. Another positive thing that might come out of it is that the Republican Party will vie for the same votes. The white house it seems have already started the courtship according to this LA times story: "White House wooing black clergy" explaining that "the Bush administration is teaming up with some of the nation's best-known and most-influential black clergy [including former Atlanta Mayor and United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young] to craft a new role for U.S. churches in Africa."

The following questions crossed my novice political mind. Can democrats afford to have Louis Farrakhan run for president in 2008? And what solution should the Democratic Party come up with to make their most loyal supporters feel respected and appreciated? Both questions posed serious threats to the Democratic Party establishment. They can’t afford to have minister Farrakhan siphoned off a chunk of the black vote in an independent bid. The answer to the second problem is to focus and deal with issues affecting black voters and in the process avert the tragedy that a Farrakhan candidacy will cause to their party. Will they take the later course? Not likely… because even though they depend on the black vote for electoral success, working on issues that benefit black voters will distance them even further from the white middle class. They [democrats] don’t want these white middle class voters to think that they are pandering to their most valuable voters for fear of losing them. They’ve already lost most of the middle class white males to the republicans [the so called NASCAR dads] and thought of losing the middle class white female voter because of addressing black issues is a dilemma that might cause them the black vote as well.