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Jonathan Capeheart, Washington Post:
After Romney’s assertion that he would be better for African Americans than the African American sitting in the White House with 95 percent of the African American vote in 2008 and a 90 percent approval rating among African Americans today, this was the gasp-worthy comment in Romney’s speech. Romney’s problem within the Republican Party all along has been the concern among conservatives that they don’t actually know who he truly is in his heart. And with good reason.
The former Massachusetts governor has been on every side of just about every issue they care about. On abortion, gay rights and gun rights, Romney has changed positions. Now, it’s not unusual for anyone to change their minds or have a change of heart on one of these bedrock issues. But all three?! This is why Romney saying “If you understood who I truly am in my heart” was as hollow as it was desperate…
This surely might help Romney with moderate voters who are repelled by intolerance. But what struck me about this passage at the end of his speech was how Romney extolled his father’s civil-rights virtues without highlighting any of his own. That’s probably because he doesn’t have much of a record to stand on.
The folks at the pro-Obama American Bridge 21st Century PAC compiled “Romney’s Record on Issues Impacting the African American Community” when he was governor. From the dearth of diversity in his administration to doing away with the commonwealth’s affirmative action policies and the hate-crimes task force, Romney’s record ought to give those independent voters pause. After all, past is prologue, so they say. But even Romney makes this maxim ring hollow.
The people you heard cheering for Mitt Romney at the NAACP meeting Wednesday were not all NAACP members, according to several sources who say Romney bussed in an estimated 200 supporters to the gathering. CNN analyst Roland Martin who was present at the NAACP gathering tweeted he saw an estimated 200 people get off Romney busses including Fla. Lt. Governor Jennifer Carrol
In case you’re not clear about his motives, Romney later told Fox News, regarding the boos: “I completely expected that, of course, but I’m going to give the same message to the NAACP that I give across the country, that it’s killing jobs.” He got nastier at a fundraiser in Montana Wednesday night, according to a pool report, telling supporters about his NAACP critics: “Remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy -more free stuff. But don’t forget nothing is really free.” Some Romney supporters are even more vicious in making political use of his NAACP reception: Rush Limbaugh is now saying the Republican candidate was booed “simply because Romney’s white.”
ABL, Rommney v Biden at the NAACP, The Charge of the “White Brigade”:
Which brings us to one Joseph R. Biden. This morning Vice-President Biden took the stage in Houston and showed the staggering difference in the way Republicans and Democrats treat black voters. One looks at us like everything that’s wrong in America. The other treats us like everything that can be right in America…
Imagine that…treating African-Americans as….Americans. Biden was so well received the crowd actually booed when he said he had to wrap up. They didn’t want him to leave, and Biden made the case, treating the audience as intelligent and informed members of the body politic rather than targets to score political points off of. Even more illuminating, Biden did so by appealing to issues all Americans are worried about.
So yes, not only was sending the Vice President a brilliant political move, but it was an excellent speech as well. Treating black voters as voters rather than black. What a novel idea.
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