[Jim from C-Town]

Because they are invited and telling your story and giving your opinion to people diametrically apposed to your philosophy may change one or two or maybe even several percentages of voters minds and that is enough to win the whole shebang.

[Braak]

Jim,

As much as I respect what you say, I gotta say going because you are invited is rather like calling the lobster dinner at a surf-and-turf the "guest of honor".

[Yashcheritsiy]

Because they are invited and telling your story and giving your opinion to people diametrically apposed to your philosophy may change one or two or maybe even several percentages of voters minds and that is enough to win the whole shebang.

No it's not.

Blacks make up ~12% of voters.

Let's say that Romney speech at the NAACP pursuaded 1% of these voters. Romney just gained 0.12% of the vote.

Let's say he pursuaded 5% - He just went up 0.6%.

Let's say he pursuaded an impossibly unlikely 10% of black voters to move away from Obama and to himself. He gains 1.2% of the total vote.

Meanwhile, if McCain in 2008 had improved his standing with white voters by a mere 5%, he would have handily defeated Obama. And doing that for a Republican would be grossly easier than appealing to large numbers of black voters, who by and large hold diametrically opposite positions (as Romney just found) on economic issues than Republicans.

No offence, but minority outreach is largely a waste of GOP dollars. Sure, if they want to pump a couple million into it just to keep up appearances, fine. But I wouldn't put a whole lot into that kitty, if I were them.