You're behind the times, Huck. Strong appeals to black voters have been paying off recently. But support for Republicans just isn't going to go from 5% to 50% overnight. Bobby Jindal got almost twice the support Republicans in La. normally get, 9%. Jim Talent is in the US Senate because he made a strong appeal to black voters on black-oriented radio stations, etc, so they weren't motivated to go to the polls to vote against him.
But in order for support to grow beyond the gains we've had, Republicans have to be involved year-round. If we just show up at election time, or in certain races, why should blacks think we care about them? At least the Democrats pretend to.
Rarely do you have an opportunity to cut into your opponent's base. If Democrats only lost 5% more of the black vote they would be completely sunk. Anyone who doesn't understand this needs to go back and learn their arithmetic.
I'm interested to know where the rubber meets the road on this. You mentioned communicating via black-oriented radio. In terms of issues, I believe the GOP is--rightly--color blind. Conservatism applies to any person of any color. Other than spending marketing dollars and time on channels targeted to blacks, what else should they be doing? And I would also like to know if that shouldn't be happening from the bottom up. Unless it's a close race, seems to me the smart thing to do is not spend money on black oriented channels, where your ROI is very low.