The man with the best record of projections on how blacks will vote has predicted that as many as 18 percent of black voters will go for George W. Bush on Election Day.

David Bositis, senior research associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says that’s an outside number; something in the 12-14 percent range may be more like it. Even so, that would be almost double what W got from black voters in 2000.

Who says life isn’t still full of mystery?

As stated in this column before, it is a puzzle that black people would support a president who has been, at best, negligent, if not hostile, of blacks. In 2000, those supporters might have been acting on hope and faith. In 2004, there’s a record, meaning it can only be – beyond self-interest – selfish interest that propels them toward Bush’s name on the ballot. In short, what Bush has done for them trumps what he hasn’t done for us. Mercy.

Of course, not all black people acknowledge their blackness or at least not its significance, valid or not, in the schemes of policy, law and custom. They are not part of “the struggle,” do not recognize racism unless it is blatant and extreme, and presume their passion for color-blindness is actually shared by all those who espouse it.

Colorless in their minds, they like Bush’s tax cuts, even though the $300-400 most taxpayers got back is merely hush money compared to the thousands the rich got back. When you think of what it did to the deficit – which our children and grandchildren will be forced to repay – it’s worse than that; it’s blood money.

Or they share his prejudice against gays and against non-Christians, which Bush achingly wants to codify or build into the U.S. Constitution.

Or they like his macho routine on the world stage – all that strutting and “bring it on” talk, a boldness that he can afford as long as he’s fighting with other people’s loved ones and other people’s money.      

Blacks who support Bush must not have been insulted when the president appointed a bigot to the federal bench and formally opposed a practice that helped assure that deserving black students got into law school – both on the eve of Martin Luther King’s birthday, even as King’s dream has been co-opted and distorted by tricksters who tout equality but don’t want to equalize.

Nor must they have been offended when Bush refused to address the NAACP convention a few months back, or, just recently, when he snubbed the substantial viewership of Black Entertainment Television. Invited for a sit-down interview with the network, Bush did a Nancy Reagan; he just said “no,” though it had the ring of a Dick Cheney – “Go f--- yourself.”

And to think that Bush has the audacity to wonder why so few black people are drawn to the GOP. 

Apparently too, blacks for Bush are unperturbed that their man studiously discounts our unemployment rate, our paltry net worth, and our poor health status when he’s exalting job growth, home ownership and healthcare. The Joint Center’s survey found that “African-Americans’ financial circumstances were in significant decline, which Bositis called “a remarkable turnaround from the 1998-2000 period.”

Four more years of that? 

If only the 18 percent who support Bush were the only ones who had to be subjected to the man’s ideas, then we could celebrate the diversification of the black vote.

But since that 18 percent could help elect a man whose decisions affect 100 percent of us, we can only bemoan their decision. What in the world are they thinking?