National political reporter Brian DeBose notes a new poll that shows Barack Obama ahead of Hillary Clinton in popularity among blacks in South Carolina.

The poll, conducted recently by Winthrop University, also highlights discontent among blacks about the Democratic Party.

Asked if the Democratic Party has taken blacks for granted, 56.2 percent of the respondents said the national party has done so and 57.1 percent said the state party also has neglected the black electorate.

It will be interesting to see if those seeds of discontent bear any fruit for Republicans, since 53 percent of the respondents said the GOP is working to attract black voters. What's more, 61.2 percent said those efforts have been very-to-somewhat effective, compared with the 35.6 percent who said the efforts have had little-to-no effect.

Are blacks -- in South Carolina and across the country --really listening to Republicans? Maybe, but I doubt it. Blacks have long complained about feeling neglected by the Democratic Party but have consistently rewarded it with their undying loyalty and unvarying vote, as Maryland's U.S. Senate race last year proved.

Still, the prospect of change is present. Asked to identify their ideological leanings, 31.3 percent of the respondents described themselves as very-to-somewhat liberal, 31.5 percent as very-to-somewhat conservative and 28.2 percent as moderate -- a fairly even spread across the political spectrum.

However, change in black voting patterns won't occur until black voters embrace a capitalistic property of politics: Your vote increases in value if both parties compete for it. Until then, blacks will continue voting for Democrats -- and bemoaning their lack of Democratic attention.

-- Carleton Bryant, assistant managing editor, The Washington Times