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But Quantano has a problem.
"I am tossed between Hillary and Obama," she said Monday. "I'm split right now. ... I've got my list of pros and cons with both of them."
New York's Democratic presidential primary Feb. 5 was once considered a cakewalk for Clinton, who has represented New York since 2001.
But after Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Iowa caucuses and his close second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary, some see him as a viable candidate here as well.
And then a spat broke out between Clinton and Obama over the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The former first lady was quoted as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Obama took issue with the remark.
Clinton said Obama was distorting her statement.
She said King was one of the people she most admired, and that her point was that his record of activism stood in stark contrast to Obama's.
Whatever the case, some Harlem voters said they were unhappy with Clinton's remark.
"I was offended," said Charlene Hines, an Obama campaign volunteer. "I said,
'There's white entitlement again.' It was agitation that brought it to that point."
As Clinton appeared in midtown on Monday at a rally promoting better working conditions for security officers, signs of Obama support uptown in Harlem ranged from posters in shop windows to Hines soliciting helpers for a get-out-the-vote drive.
"He's an intelligent man," said Ronald Jeffers, who was distributing handbills in front of the Apollo Theater. "I like what he stands for."
A Dec. 17 poll by Quinnipiac University showed Clinton leading Obama by 55 percent to 17 percent among likely Democratic voters in New York. No new state polls have been released since Obama's Jan. 3 victory in Iowa, so it is difficult to handicap the race now.
Both Bill and Hillary Clinton have had a warm relationship with black voters since long before author Toni Morrison called him "the first black president" in 1998.
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 Harlem residents are used to seeing Bill Clinton on the street since he opened his office on 125th Street, and many have heard one or both Clintons speak to black churches and community groups over the years.
Quantano recalled a 1992 campaign event at which Bill Clinton had his staff take plates of food to onlookers across the street.
"That was impressive," she said. "He didn't just bring the food, but he joined them and ate with people."
Quantano said she also was troubled by Hillary Clinton's remark about King.
"I'm still working on that one," she said. "I'm processing that one."
Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois and the son of a Kenyan father and a white American mother, has stirred pride among black voters since his emergence on the national political scene.
"People are proud that someone from our community can do so well, and can attract people outside our community," said former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton.
Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf said the Clintons "have always been widely popular among black people." But he added, "There's never been a candidate like Obama before. ... He has picked up the pace with African-Americans in the last couple of weeks, especially since the win in Iowa. Because the impossible appears more probable."
Clinton enjoys support from Harlem power brokers such as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
"There is an excitement concerning Barack Obama," Butts conceded. "What I'm hearing is that people really would like to see Mr. Obama do well as a senator, get re-elected in Illinois, and if change is going to happen it's going to take someone with the experience to know how to make it."
"I think he's brilliant," Butts said. "I think he's got everything going for him. But it's hard to turn your back on your friends, and Hillary and Bill have been friends, politically speaking."
[Associated
Press; By KAREN MATTHEWS]
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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