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."
Speak to opposition? Speak to FreeRepublic, Kerry. Make our day.
It's OVER.
Well of course.
Where did you think Democrats came from anyway?
Put 'em there, and then they count on you for the handouts -- the handouts that keep you there.
It's a beautiful system. Stalin perfected it a while back.
How big is this crowd? Very little applause. At least until he stopped talking.
Doesn't surprise me he called Bond :eloquent: considering Bond compared Bush and this admin to the taliban and swastika lovers.
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
But then you knew that already, didn't you. ;)
Yes, I wish they would quit FIGHTING and just go to work for us.
Outrageous.
And notice he cited both elections in 2000 and the 2002 elections as somehow illegitimate.
What a "whip up the hate" fest this was.
After his preaching speil, I thought I'd hear him say at his closing "God bless America." Didn't catch that coming out of his mouth, though.
WSJ had a pretty good article in the Opinion section by Ron Paige "Naked Partisans" in regards to the NAACP.
Too bad I don't have an online subscription - or I would have posted it.
I heard him close with "God bless..." but can't remember if he just said that, added "you" or "America" or what.
I've been saying that for months.
Clinton was all about Clinton.
Kerry is about destroying this country as we know it.
Realistically, why? The media won't cover it -- and that's the only reason to give any speech in campaign season -- at least, any speech in "friendly territory."
Kerrykohn didn't win any votes today -- and he wouldn't have lost any if he'd have stayed home. (I'm talking about votes in attendance at his speech!) He was preaching to the choir -- and the only reason he was preaching to the choir was because the cameras were ON and the mics were ON and the satfeeds were ON.
If it was just some "little country church", he'd never have wasted his time.
And if Bush hits the outfits you suggested, it'll be the same deal, but in reverse -- and, without the mics and cams and satfeeds.
Reality, that's all. Not pretty.
On Imus this morning, Kerry said that "overtures" were made to him by Republicans to put McCain on the ticket.
He said he never asked McCain.
I commend the president for not walking in and playing doormat for people who hate him.
I talk to my cat, but I don't expect an intelligent reply. I think Bush has reached a similar conclusion about the NAACP.
HillaryCare was only going to raise taxes 17%, of course that figure was the Low estimate, so we can figure that universal healthcare woudl raise taxes an additional 22%. If the government wants to steal an additional 22% of my money every year I could afford the best health care plan available today and still have thousands a year left over.
Maybe he was saying "God bless the French." : )
What's the matter Johnny ... Can't visit the folks in West Philly???
I agree.
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