Roland S. Martin on Barack Obama...

If you have not yet read Roland S. Martin's commentary on CNN, Barack Obama's black wakeup call, I recommend heading over to do so.

Martin makes some interesting points:

There was a general assumption when Obama announced for the presidency that he was going to garner a lion's share of the black vote. In a normal presidential race, sure. But with Sen. Hillary Clinton in the race, the reality of the affection -- real and perceived -- that black folks have for the Clintons is clearly what has her storming out to a strong lead over Obama.

He then goes into giving reasons why he thinks black voters have been ambivalent about Obama:

Reason number one: The belief that white voters will not accept Obama so a vote for him will be a waste. Forget the fact that there are thousands of black elected officials in the country. African Americans running for the White House are not the norm, especially one with his credentials. This is a real concern, and one that can't be overlooked and dismissed easily.

Reason number two: Obama will be "taken out" if he wins. The New York Times had a piece over the weekend where a black woman essentially said her way of protecting Obama from harm is by not voting for him. Sounds nutty, but again, it's real, and it's been said many times. I've heard this "fear factor" time and time again, and it speaks to the deep concern blacks have that America has not advanced enough to be comfortable with a black man in the White House.

The third reason: Obama the policy wonk doesn't mesh with black voters. This is not to suggest that black voters don't care about issues -- they do. But Obama has a certain emotional detachment that has turned off many of them. You can't find one major "moment" where black voters have embraced him and showered him with love. I was highly critical of his performance at the June debate at Howard University because that was his crowd. But he failed to ignite the room. One HUGE Obama supporter told me that his daughter went to the event backing him, and came out loving Clinton.

While I'm not a black woman, I'm not sure Martin's advice as to the way to combat some of this is to put Michelle Obama on the road. As a woman, I'm smart enough to realize that how much I like or don't like a spouse really has no bearing on the decision to support or not support a presidential candidate. I seriously doubt many black women out there would feel any differently. Unless he's suggesting that Michelle Obama be the candidate instead, the end result of her stumping the campaign trail might not have a large affect.