[WS:] It seems that Fenty's fate is not unique - other black mayors (Newark, Detroit) have a similar problem: gaining popularity among whites while losing it among blacks. I know that Charles will disagree, but to me this indicates that skin color is a diversion in the "latter days" US politics, putting a "human face" on its obnoxious systemically right-wing character. People are let to believe that it matters who gets elected, they are let to believe that if "their" guy or gal (defined by skin color, gender, religious creed, or political ideology) gets elected, things will change. They will not. Domestic policies (foreign policy is a different story) have been decided, at least in thier main contours, in corporate boardrooms long time ago, and the only thing that will change is the face that will announce those decisions to the people, fill in the details, and then implement them.
That creates unnecessary resentment. I am pretty sure that Fenty, Nutter, Bing - or for that matter Obama and many others - meant well and they honestly tried to make a difference. However, their choices were severely restricted by the conservative forces and they simply could not do much. This earned them the ire of people who originally supported them, even though the actual blame lays elsewhere - in the fact the playing field is far from being level and the rules of the game have been fixed in favor of the right wing interests.
So basically our political choices are pretty much limited to (i) corporate whores with populist appeal (cf. Sarah Palin) who will enthusiastically pursue the conservative agenda or (ii) reluctant realists (cf. Mr. Obama) who will be told to toe-in the conservative line and they will pretty much comply. That is not that much different from the range of political choices available in Communist Eastern Europe.
Wojtek