By Deborah Barfield Berry
Washington Bureau
New York NewsDay
WASHINGTON -- Two weeks before the hotly contested presidential election, a new study has found that President George W. Bush could get almost double the support from blacks that he did in 2000.
The jump from 9 percent four years ago to 18 percent, however, is far behind the 69 percent of blacks who support Democratic rival Sen. John Kerry, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank that focuses issues regarding blacks and other minorities.
And even support for Bush could be diluted by the significant shift in young blacks switching from independent to Democrat, political experts say.
"If they turn out, I don't think Bush is going to get 18 percent," said David Bositis, a senior analyst at the center. He said Bush would then get 12 to 13 percent of the black vote, putting him in line with what other Republican presidents have garnered.
"He has to get higher than last time. He was in the dumpster last time," Bositis said.
The center polled 850 blacks and 850 members of the general public from Sept. 15 to Oct. 10. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
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