A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey in December found that all three were popular among black voters, but that Clinton received the highest marks.
Blassingame speaks fondly of Edwards, who, like the pastor, was born in Seneca, S.C. "I know where he came from, because I came from there," Blassingame said. "I can identify with him, and he can identify with us."
The actor Bill Cosby told the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, that the country was ready for a black president, but he suggested that Obama might not be the best candidate in the 2008 race.
"I see the African American voter having to study both Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. Obama," he wrote in an e-mail that the newspaper quoted Thursday. "It goes without saying that President Clinton and Mrs. Clinton have embraced the African Americans.... By studying both politicians deeply, the African American voter for the first time will not pick a candidate because of any particular idiosyncrasy."
Obama has plenty of room to improve his standing, both with black community leaders and with black voters, who in the end won't necessarily follow the lead of clergy and others. Despite a growing national profile and two best-selling books, recent polls show that he remains unknown to many voters.
Even Blassingame, the South Carolina pastor backing Edwards, said that some of his church members would embrace the possibility that their votes could make history and would support Obama once he campaigned in the state's primary election.
Still, some black leaders just don't think Obama can win a general election, and they want to put their support somewhere else. Others worry about his lack of experience, particularly on foreign policy.
"It's nothing against Obama, but we have to weigh all those factors," said David Mack, a South Carolina state legislator and former chairman of the state's black legislative caucus, who is backing Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.).
Ford, the state senator, said Obama "wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning one state" in a general election. He pointed to the 2006 Senate campaign in Tennessee, in which a black Democrat lost to a white Republican after a racially tinged campaign ad.
"I'm just being real," Ford said.
Relative rookie
