I must be hanging with the wrong crowd.

Sen. Barack Obama isn't just inspiring black voters to register in large numbers as he gets closer to being the Democratic presidential nominee. Evidence indicates that he's motivating some black Republicans to switch parties. While the number of blacks who have left the GOP for the Democratic Party can't be pinpointed, it's not hard to find voters who have made the switch.

During the Black Republican Forum, I led off my remarks by saying that John McCain should have been there. For that, I was quickly and publicly put in my place by the National Black Republican Association chairman. Earlier that week, I wrote a piece saying that John McCain and the Republican Party should not take the black vote for granted, and was put in my place by some black Republicans who responded.

If black Republicans ARE leaving to vote for Obama, who should be putting whom in their place now?

In Florida, it's happening at a time when the state Republican Party has made black voter recruitment a priority — one that is more difficult with Obama's success.

Whitfield Jenkins of Ocala became a Republican nearly four decades ago, abandoning the Democrats out of anger when black voters helped elect a state lawmaker who later opposed a state holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. In 2006, Jenkins helped Republican Gov. Charlie Crist's campaign, but this year he switched back to the Democratic Party for one reason: Obama.

"Really early in his presidential campaign, when I got the opportunity to listen intently to his ideas and his platforms, I immediately said, 'This is beyond belief,'" Jenkins said. "I joined the effort and it became clear to me that I was better able to work in my community in a broad way and support this outstanding candidate as a Democrat."

Outstanding?

Personally, I'm sick of the Republican Party making token overtures to black Republicans assuming they've got our allegiance locked. Obviously, they do not.

Now while real black Republicans would never switch over, those who need the most assurances (while being part of a demographic most despised by their own) are given lip-service.

And we wonder why stories like this are coming out.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bob Parks is a member/writer for the National Advisory Council of Project 21, VP of Marketing and Media Relations/Staff Writer for the New Media Alliance, Senior Writer for the New Media Journal, and commentator for the Intel Radio Network.