[POL] NAACP asks Bush to relent on snub

[Bearded Weirdo]

Palm Beach Post article

<b>FAIR USE/EDUCATIONAL/DISCUSSION PURPOSES ONLY

<font size=+2><center>NAACP asks Bush to relent on snub</center></font>

The Baltimore Sun
Sunday, July 11, 2004



PHILADELPHIA</b> -- Warning that President Bush may be hurting the election chances of Republican candidates by shunning the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention here, the civil rights group's president Saturday reinvited Bush to speak and called on the White House to get over its displeasure with criticism from the group's leaders.

"At some point in time, you've got to get over it," NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said during a news conference as the group's 95th annual convention began. Many black voters would see the president's absence as writing them off and their anger could spill to other campaigns, he said.

Mfume, a former Baltimore congressman, acknowledged that he and Julian Bond, the NAACP's chairman, have criticized the president and his administration harshly on several occasions recently.

Mfume offered fresh criticism Saturday, giving the Bush administration a "C" grade for its policies affecting blacks and suggesting that the president is doing a disservice to his reelection effort and to his office if he is willing to meet only with those who agree with him.

"If I got 9 percent of the (black) vote four years ago, won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote, I'd be concerned that I couldn't tolerate any slippage," Mfume said.

A call to the White House Saturday seeking comment was not returned.

If Bush does not relent, he would be the first president since Herbert Hoover not to address the Baltimore-based civil rights group. Although he addressed the group's meeting in Baltimore when he was running in 2000, Bush has turned down invitations the past four years. Late last month, in a letter the NAACP released Saturday, the president's appointments director wrote that Bush would be unable to attend because of a scheduling conflict.

But on Friday, during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania, Bush lashed out at the NAACP leadership when asked why he was skipping the convention again.

"There are a lot of people I admire in the NAACP who support me," the president told Pennsylvania reporters. But he said his relationship with the group's leaders is "virtually nonexistent because of their rhetoric."

The NAACP president noted that black leaders had their differences with other Republican presidents but managed to maintain dialogue. Mfume recalled how NAACP delegates applauded candidate Bush at their 2000 convention.

Mfume said he shook Bush's hand at his first State of the Union address in early 2001 and offered his support, which he said was welcomed. But, Mfume said, "that's the last I heard from him."

The 8,000 people expected to attend the convention are scheduled to hear Thursday from Bush's Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, who will be accompanied by his running mate, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

"I'm hoping the president will change his mind," Mfume said. "We think democracy is enhanced by having both candidates here."

 

[Snipe Hunter]

ROTFLMAO

The NAACP has moved so far to the left ....it has left their group irrelivant.

Who cares what a bunch of black commie socialest, income redistrabutionests want.

As far as I am concerned Shrud can SNUB them all he wants. After all they are just looking for more of my hard earned tax money, for doing nothing.

Here ya go NAACP

 

[TECH32]

<b>"At some point in time, you've got to get over it," NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said</b>

Man, if that isn't the pot calling the...whoops! Can't say that! The NAACP might think I was making a racist remark or something.

But still, methinks it's LONG past time for Mfume to heed his own advice...

 

[Infoscout]

I think the naacp needs to get over it. They are a major supporter of the Democratic party, stand against everything the republicans support, and continuously bash white conservatives. So why would Bush or any republican speak at a conference of the naacp? comic relief?

Seems like they have these conferences every two months. What happened the reality media show called JOHNJOHN couldn't play there that evening?

 

[Vector]

ROTFLMAO

The NAACP has moved so far to the left ....it has left their group irrelivant.

Who cares what a bunch of black commie socialest, income redistrabutionests want.

As far as I am concerned Shrud can SNUB them all he wants. After all they are just looking for more of my hard earned tax money, for doing nothing.

Here ya go NAACP

The National Association for the Advancement of (Liberal) Colored People wants President Bush there because without him, they take another giant leap toward becoming irrelevant as a political force in American politics. They know this. And they are terrified of it.
Mr. President, there are far more productive ways you can spend next weekend.

 

[Phil Ca]

Politicians are free to snub any group or assemblage they wish, sometimes to their disfavor and sometimes not. In the case of the NAACP, I believe that if everyone would snub them it would be doing the country a favor in general. The fact that they are becoming an irrelevant organization is fairly well known.

Some years ago, a few months before he was assainated, Mayor Moscone of SF appeared at the side door of our building in downtown SF. He asked if a certain group was having a function there that evening. (some sniveling rights group iirc)I replied that there was nothing going on that evening. He smiled and said that if someone calls and asks to please tell them that he was there and that he was 'sorry' that he missed them. With a wink and a nod he was gone. No one called and I was not about to lie for him either.

Politicians are always in demand at functions that are designed to prop up that orgnization. I would imagine that attending many of these events or non-events would cause any pol to become weary of the entire process.

 

[Grantbo]

This is Grantbo
Bush has made the right call. After all the extremely negative things the NAALCP has said about him and his staff, why in the world would he go there? I also agree with the thoughts from the above writers.

Actually, I'd love to see Bush go in front of them and tell them that their community has some major problems and how to fix them. You know crime, out of wedlock births, lack of getting an education, fixation on rap, gangs etc. I bet that such a speech wouldn't go over too well.

 

[Bearded Weirdo]

My guess is that the NAACP would take Bush's speech out of context. and publicize it for their own benefit. Very smart of him to snub them instead.

 

[leucos]

Bush "lashed out" at the NAACP?? His comment didn't appear that way to me. I can't really imagine him lashing out. Some of the media just can't see their own bias in their articles.

 

[Ought Six]

"The average KKK member may be stupid, but the well-financed forces of the radical right are not. They say they believe in a color-blind America, where race doesn't count. Sadly, in America, equal opportunity is color-coded. What they really want is a color-free America, and they think they'll get there by not counting race."

-- Excerpts from speech by Julian Bond, NAACP President, at the 94th Annual NAACP Convention ---
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"One party repeatedly plays the race card, appealing to the dark underside of American culture, to that minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality. In coded racial appeals, they embrace Confederate leaders as patriots and wallow in a victim mentality. They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division. They celebrate Martin Luther King and misuse his message. Their idea of reparations is to give war criminal Jefferson Davis a pardon. Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side."

"The passage of these two laws in 1964 and 1965 [the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965] marked the beginning of the dependence of the Republican Party on the politics of racial division to win elections and gain power. By playing the race card in election after election, they've appealed to that dark underside of American culture, to that minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality. They preach racial neutrality and they practice racial division."

-- Excerpts from open remarks by Julian Bond, NAACP President, at the 'Take Back America' conference --
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"[President Bush] has selected nominees from the Taliban wing of American politics, appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing, and chosen Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection."

-- Excerpt from speech by Julian Bond, NAACP President, at the 92th Annual NAACP Convention ---
-----

And Julian Bond is amazed that Bush turned down his invitation.