Providing an 11th hour clue to how blacks will vote on the presidential stage, 95 percent of African Americans believe that the federal government should be the nation's jobs creator, according to a last-minute battleground poll.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People released their poll on Election Day to show that jobs, and blacks' preference for a "national jobs program," is the number one issue. Next, but way down the list of importance, was education at 23 percent and health care at 22 percent.
The poll of 1,600 African Americans who have already voted or said they were certain to vote did not indicate a winner in the President Obama-Mitt Romney race, but Romney has championed tax cuts and the expansion of small business job creation while the president is eager for government stimulus spending to create new jobs.
"Creation of a national jobs program is essential to winning the African American vote," said the NAACP. While 60 percent put jobs and the economy at the top of their issues list, the NAACP said that "95% of all respondents believe the federal government should be engaging in job creation opportunities for all Americans."
And while the influential group said most polled believed that "success is determined by self-reliance," they also "see a very strong and important role for the federal government."
