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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."
<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."