Mitt gets booed at the NAACP convention.

[chrisinhouston]

I'll give him some credit for showing up and speaking but I'm not sure if he made the right decision to forcefully declare that he would cut extra spending on programs and that would include that he would repeal "Obamacare." It got a resounding big boo for that.

Yes, there are AA voters that vote conservatively, perhaps Republican but unfortunately the ones that get in the news mostly are the likes of Herman Cain and Allen West, a couple of real nut jobs.

[glatt]

I was a little surprised that he would go talk to the NAACP. I would expect the reception to be a poor one. It would be like Obama talking to the NRA.

[Ibby]

Can you imagine a more condescending and arrogant approach than telling people that they reason they don’t support you is that they don’t understand you?

[chrisinhouston]

I also think the use of the term Obamacare was not smart. Many AA see the POTUS as one of their own and the term is seen as derogatory. Furthermore whether you like the health care bill or hate it, the fact is that many working and successful African Americans are either without insurance or pay high costs.

I looked back at the 2008 convention and both Obama and McCain spoke but if you look at McCain's speech it was received in a better way and he even took time to compliment candidate Obama:

“Don’t tell him I said this, but he is an impressive fellow in many ways,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Obama. “He has inspired a great many Americans, some of whom had wrongly believed that a political campaign could hold no purpose or meaning for them.”

Call it kissing up but isn't that what one would expect?

[Happy Monkey]

I wonder if he's hoping to gain tea party cred for going to NAACP and telling them he'll repeal Obamacare. I don't think he had much chance of converting his audience, but he may get some other votes by going to the NAACP and "telling it like it is".

[Ibby]

There are two ways this could have gone for Romney.
He gives the speech, and is met lukewarmly, proving that Romney has some potential with independent african-americans, or
He gives the speech, and those uppity black folks act like a bunch of savages and shout down the poor white man when he tells it "like it is".
either way, Romney gets to spin it as a victory.

[SamIam]

As an aside, the Mormon Church was hostile toward black people everywhere. For example, while all Mormon (white) men are considered priests, black men were barred from the priesthood (women get to be members of the ladies sewing circle and obey their priest. Since blacks could not be priests, they were barred from celestial marriages in the Temple and thus barred from salvation.

In 1978, Mormon leaders suddenly had a revelation from god telling them to allow blacks access to the priesthood and all the rites of the Mormon Church. Prejudice lingers however:

LDS historian Wayne J. Embry interviewed several black LDS church members in 1987 and reported "All of the interviewees reported incidents of aloofness on the part of white members, a reluctance or a refusal to shake hands with them or sit by them, and racist comments made to them." Embry further reported that one black church member "was amazingly persistent in attending Mormon services for three years when, by her report, no one would speak to her." Embry reports that "she [the same black church member] had to write directly to the president of the LDS Church to find out how to be baptized" because none of her fellow church members would tell her.

Black LDS church member Darron Smith wrote in 2003: "Even though the priesthood ban was repealed in 1978, the discourse that constructs what blackness means is still very much intact today. Under the direction of President Spencer W. Kimball, the First Presidency and the Twelve removed the policy that denied black people the priesthood but did very little to disrupt the multiple discourses that had fostered the policy in the first place. Hence there are Church members today who continue to summon and teach at every level of Church education the racial discourse that black people are descendants of Cain, that they merited lesser earthly privilege because they were "fence-sitters" in the War in Heaven, and that, science and climatic factors aside, there is a link between skin color and righteousness"

Wikipedia

As an active Mormon, I'm sure Romney had no compunction about telling the NAACP that he would roll back the new health care law. Those folks should know their place, right?

[Clodfobble]

Clone thread I'm too lazy to make:

Mitt gets boned at the NAACP convention.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Mitt gets boned at the NAACP convention.

Different word. Same meaning.

When visiting a confrontational crowd, a politician should meet them half way. He did not do that probably fearing loss of wacko extremists that must vote in great numbers.

Which then begs a question. Why did he even bother to go to a 'no win' situation? Somewhere must exist a good reason. It sure it not obvious.

[Clodfobble]

He did it because he honestly thought middle ground would be easy to find, in the same way that he honestly believes he's in touch with middle-class America because he knows some people who own NASCAR teams.

[classicman]

Can you imagine a more condescending and arrogant approach than telling people that they reason they don’t support you is that they don’t understand you?

lol - yup. Sure can.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by tw

When visiting a confrontational crowd, a politician should meet them half way. He did not do that probably fearing loss of wacko extremists that . . .

Tw calls fiscal sanity the province of wacko extremists. That demonstrates the inadequacy of tw's thinking. His opinions are so unreal even he has no business having them. He defines the ultima Thule extremity of wacko. Bad enough to embarrass the entire continent of North America, to say nothing of the Cellar.

[richlevy]

Well, at least he didn't try to come up with some humorous anecdote about his great great grandfather and his favorite house slave.

Actually, I think his handlers expected this. I think that this was done to beef up his credit with the "I'm not a racist" racist crowd in the GOP. Having the NAACP boo you is a backwards endorsement.

[SamIam]

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Tw calls fiscal sanity the province of wacko extremists. That demonstrates the inadequacy of tw's thinking. His opinions are so unreal even he has no business having them. He defines the ultima Thule extremity of wacko. Bad enough to embarrass the entire continent of North America, to say nothing of the Cellar.

WOW! tw has the ability to embarrass the entire continent of North America? I'd be nice to a guy with powers like that. No telling what tw will do next. He might decide to embarrass you as well.

[Trilby]

I saw a clip and thought poor ol' Mitt looked extremely nervous.

Not his usual crowd.