Former Obama pollster dispels notion that Iowa will determine which Democratic candidate black voters support

People need to refresh their memories, suggests Cornell Belcher, the former chief pollster in South Carolina for the Obama campaign.

Belcher told The New York Times that people are placing too much emphasis on the role the Iowa caucus played in establishing former President Barack Obama as a serious contender for the Democratic nomination in 2008, especially among black voters. Instead, Belcher said their internal polling numbers indicated Obama's support among black voters had surpassed the early frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, as early as November 2007.

"Black voters aren't waiting for white people to tell them what to do," Belcher said.

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But he doesn't think many of the candidates have learned that lesson. Belcher thinks the party's current crop of contenders shouldn't wait around and see if a surprise Iowa victory can carry them forward like they believe it did for Obama. Instead, he argues, they should already be challenging former Vice President Joe Biden in South Carolina, where he's in command. "It's lazy thinking," Belcher told the Times. "They think they don't have to put resources behind it, and is, in fact, taking a key constituency that they need for granted." Read more at The New York Times.