Before the Iowa caucus returns were in Thursday, the phones started ringng in the home of Fletcher Smith Jr., a black state legislator from Greenville, S.C. Like other black leaders, Smith finds himself being courted so assiduously by the campaigns of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama that he said he had thought, "Gosh, maybe I should run for president."
In New York, the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil-rights activist, said he was called all Thursday night by "either the candidate themselves or someone high up in the top three campaigns" suggesting he make up his mind.
Obama's 8-point victory margin in overwhelmingly white Iowa changed the landscape of the presidential campaign, whittling away at doubts that a biracial African-American candidate could be elected. More HERE