Hillary Clinton certainly channeled her inner Obama in Sunday night’s Democratic debate; Jonathan Martin has a good take on this in the New York Times. Why the obsequiousness toward Obama? Clearly she is contemplating the possibility of losing to Bernie Sanders in both Iowa and New Hampshire and looking to the primaries beyond. My sense is that most black voters not only strongly support Obama, but feel that he is disrespected and judged more unfavorably by others than a white president with an identical record would be. Clinton spoke to this by praising him generously and by suggesting that Sanders’ health care proposals would undo Obama’s signature domestic achievement, Obamacare, which she even called by that name.

Black voters made up only 4 percent of Iowa caucusgoers and 1 percent of New Hampshire primary voters in 2008, according to entrance and exit polls. But they made up 19 percent of Democratic voters overall in that year’s contests, and much higher percentages in the 13 following states, listed in their order of voting this year: South Carolina (55 percent), Alabama (51 percent), Georgia (51 percent), Tennessee (29 percent), Virginia (30 percent), Louisiana (48 percent), Mississippi (50 percent), Michigan (23 percent), Illinois (24 percent), North Carolina (34 percent), Maryland (37 percent), Delaware (28 percent) and New Jersey (23 percent). These states elected 1,059 pledged delegates, 29 percent of the 3,636 total.