"Only" 88 percent??
But you said this:
So which is it?
Both, you may have 88% of blacks voting Democrat but its even worse if most of them didn't vote at all. That's pretty much what happened on Election Day and one of the reasons why Mondale was schooled.
He disrespected Jesse Jackson - There goes your black vote
He criticized Ronald Reagan saying he's too old - There goes your senior citizen votes
And that's what's happening now. The GOP is pissing on people who would have voted for the party and are expecting the white vote to carry them over. It simply isn't going to happen because not every white person is going to vote for the GOP. Bush got 11% of the black vote in 2004 which may not sound like much but the elections in 2000 and 2004 have been so close that those percentages matter. If he got the 5% that McCain got, we could have been looking at Kerry and Edwards running the country.
Ignoring votes is not a smart idea but pissing off people who cause everyone who normally don't vote to come out in full force and crack skulls at the voting booth. That's the game the GOP is playing right now to satisfy the Tea Party but its going to seriously backfire.