Now that a black American is a viable candidate for president, we find several prominent black conservatives unfortunately considering throwing away their principles in order to support a member of their own race. One example is J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma representative whose name is often brought up in speculation about McCain’s VP.

J.C. Watts, a former Oklahoma congressman who once was part of the GOP House leadership, said he’s thinking of voting for Obama. Watts said he’s still a Republican, but he criticizes his party for neglecting the black community. Black Republicans, he said, have to concede that while they might not agree with Democrats on issues, at least that party reaches out to them.

“And Obama highlights that even more,” Watts said, adding that he expects Obama to take on issues such as poverty and urban policy. “Republicans often seem indifferent to those things.”

So his complaint is that Republicans haven’t payed enough attention to the black community, believing we’ve neglected them. That’s strange; See, Karol Sheinin interviewed Watts back in ’04, even asking him specifically about Republican outreach to the black community. His response then?

I tried to ask him about how the Republican party can attract more African-Americans but he was sticking to his message that Bush should just keep doing what he’s doing, despite the results the party is getting.

He disputed Sheinin’s assertion that Republican efforts haven’t worked and didn’t indicate there was any room for improvement. What changed between then and now?