Posted on 07/15/2004 7:00:50 AM PDT by areafiftyone
BOSTON (AP) -- Democrat John Kerry is telling the NAACP that as president he will always talk with people who disagree with him - a slap at President Bush for declining to address the civil rights group.
"I will be a president who talks with everyone those who agree with me and those who don't," Kerry says in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday in Philadelphia before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Bush has not spoken to the NAACP since he was campaigning in 2000. He was angered when, during that race, the NAACP National Voter Fund ran an ad that portrayed Bush as unsympathetic to the dragging death of James Byrd in Texas.
Since the campaign, leaders of the NAACP have called Bush an illegal president, compared his anti-abortion views to the Taliban and called his trip to Africa a photo-op. A Bush spokesman blasted the NAACP on Thursday.
The president "has many friends who belong to the NAACP and respects their proud history of championing civil rights," White House communications director Dan Bartlett said. "Differences of opinion and opposing views are of course part of the national debate. Yet the current leadership of the NAACP has clearly crossed the line in partisanship and civility, making it impossible to have a constructive dialogue."
"Despite the current leadership's intolerant views, President Bush will continue to reach out to members of the NAACP and African-Americans from across the country," he said. Bush addresses the Urban League, another civil rights group, next week.
The leaders of the NAACP have said they are committed to helping Kerry defeat Bush this year. Kerry welcomes the help as he tries to stir blacks to get to the polls this year.
I will be a president who shares the values of people of all colors who get up and go to work every day, try to raise their families in dignity and want to leave this world a better place for their children," Kerry says in the NAACP speech. "I will be a president who when he is invited into your home, will always say yes."
In a statement, the Kerry campaign said Bush has failed to bring opportunity for blacks. It criticized Bush for failing to support affirmative action, for dropping employment among blacks and for cutting education and health care programs that disproportionately impact blacks.
Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said, "Kerry continues to campaign making fundamentally baseless assertions about the economy." He said minority homeownership is at record levels.
After his speech to the NAACP, Kerry was beginning his "Front Porch Tour" in Philadelphia suburb of Lansdowne. The Kerry campaign is putting a new spin on an old technique - trying to get the candidate more time sharing concerns with regular Americans.
While Kerry is visiting with voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, his running mate John Edwards will be visiting voters on a front porch in New Orleans. Although Kerry and Edwards were officially kicking off what they say will be a regular feature of their campaign trips, Kerry sat with voters on their porch at least once before.
Last month in Columbus, Ohio, Kerry chatted with two sisters who brought out iced tea and talked about the struggles of raising their kids in a tough economy. The normal intimacy of a front-porch chat was somewhat disrupted by the glare of the flood lights brought in by the campaign and more than a dozen national journalists and staff who watched from the lawn.
Kerry said the importance of the porch visits is "going to the homes of ordinary citizens across this nation and talking with them about the values that matter most to them - values you live by every day - family, responsibility, service, opportunity, inclusion, fairness, faith."
BWWAAAAAHAAAHAAA Kerry and his photo-ops! BWAAAHAAAHAAA!! He is such a PHONEY!!
"Despite the current leadership's intolerant views, President Bush will continue to reach out to members of the NAACP and African-Americans from across the country," he said.
Does anyone imagine that Kerry would address an opposition group so politely and so frankly?
Kerry courts the NAACP....
The sun rises in the east....
I'll respect you in the morning.....
Nothing to court...they're already in lockstep....
NeverGore
Well, there goes the African-American vote! Guess we won't be ghetting their support this time around........../sarcasm off.......
I hope Kerry doesn't show up on my front porch. If I hear his tour's in my neighborhood, I'll just have to put the water sprinkler out like I do at Halloween.
I look forward to Kerry's addresses to the NRA convention and the National Right to Life Committee's annual meeting.
Shucks ya mean we will lose all two votes we get? Condi and Colin Powell? ;-)
Yeah, right.
When are you going to address the NRA, CPAC, .....
Heck we should try to set up an online Q&A with Kerry here at FR. It'll be a cold day in Hades when Kerry agrees to that.
I think that President Bush comes out way ahead in votes over his not being bullied to appear at the NAALCP.
The latest gallup poll showed that people already see him as one who doesn't back down. The fact that he is showing this partisan racist group as irrelevant is music to many voter's ears.
Kerry will appear to be just an a$$ kisser. It will be seen as fake and weak.
NASCAR dads surely will not appreciate the appearance of Kerry cowtowing to these hate mongers after Spike Lee blasted them yesterday.
Good job Mr. President. Do not support thugs and bullies.
No.....They are American-Americans.......
"Despite the current leadership's intolerant views, President Bush will continue to reach out to members of the NAACP and African-Americans from across the country," he said. Bush addresses the Urban League, another civil rights group, next week.,
I've said it before and I will keep saying it: Bush should unabashedly court conservative blacks and black organizations with all his might and mane; aggressively and unapologetically promoting the same values and institutions that work for all americans. If he needs any suggestions he could start by publically consulting with the likes of Thomas Sowell, Ward Connerly, Larry Elder, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson (the anti-Jesse) and many others out there. Not to mention our own mhking and TrueBlackMan.
Oh yes. I forgot to mention. The very idea of a rich man coming to any town anywhere close to where I live and telling me he understands the middle-class squeeze is just not going to fly in these parts, except maybe for those whose ballots are handed to them already filled out.
NAACLP, the party of whoopi goldberg and the Hate Bush crowd. Who else can kerry court? NOW, NAMBLA, ACLU, CPUSA, for starters.
sw
Democrat John Kerry is telling the NAACP that as president he will always talk with people who disagree with him
Lets invite him to a freeper convention! He says he WILL ALWAYS talk with people who disagree with him.
Let's just ask those conservatives who been pushed and bullied and had their signs yanked out of their hands by Kerry's minions at various gatherings, if they agree with Kerry's assertion. President Bush is right not to speak to the duplicitous, gaming NAACP. Kerry fits right in with them.
As far as NAMBLA goes, I'm sure Monseur Kerry could find some common ground with them, so that may not lead to the reaction we have in mind.
And the educated audience is responding with "woof-woof". Yep, I want those votes.
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