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."
Floodlights, camera and hoards of reporters..yeah, real "intimate."
JFKerry's speech was like one of those out of a mosque in the middle east --- a call to arms.
What? He was saying Republicans really support him and if he put McCain on he'd win or what? What a lying POS.
Um, right. Like the NAACCCP "challenged" Kerrykohn today?
Bingo.
My standard suggestion these days is "Go rent a copy of Cabaret."
I broke down and bought one. Found a like-new DVD on ebay for under ten bucks. I might get another, and have one to lend out.
It's almost like prophecy.
Freedom of speech: Democrats talk, everyone else shut up and listen.
BZZZT!!!
Wrong answer.
If they steal that much -- or any amount -- to go down the "universal health care" road -- you won't have "the best health care" at all. You'll wait in line to see your assigned "provider", or, you -- and your doctor -- will go to prison, and pay massive fines.
Take a look at Merrie England to see what "universal health care" looks like. They actually factor the savings into their budget that are incurred by people dying while waiting for treatment.
YES. Hospitals HAVE to treat people and they DO, and swallow millions of dollars every year because of unpaying customers.
NO ONE IN AMERICA IS DENIED HEALTHCARE!!!!!!
(That was from my husband, the hospital administrator guy......)
But of course.
That Democrats and the UN are the enemy? What a HYPERCRIT!
"I look forward to Kerry's addresses to the NRA convention and the National Right to Life Committee's annual meeting."
I am really interested in Kerry's support of Miquel Estrada. Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?
Yeah; where was Kerry during the NRA Convention?
For pete's sake, why does ANYone think the President should attend a convention of a bunch of numbnuts like the NAALCP who during the last election ran ads blaming him for the dragging death of James Byrd?
And don't forget, as per Larry King interview, he also doesn't have time in his schedule for an intelligence briefing! Nor did he have time to read the intelligence reports before voting for the war.
I wonder if Johnnyboy would go and speak to an anti-abortion group or the NRA without hesitation.
"Bush has plenty of reasons to turn down the NAACP"
Good article by a Baltimore Sun reporter...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/bal-md.kane14jul14,0,7772448.column?coll=bal-election-headlines
...Late October 2000: The NAACP Voter Education Fund responds to Bush's olive branch with one of the most despicable ads in presidential campaign history. With about a week to go before the election, the ad shows a pickup truck pulling a chain. The voice of the daughter of Texas lynching victim James Byrd
...The first months of 2001, in the early days of the Bush administration: Bond goes on the first of his patented anti-Bush rants, saying that members of the president's Cabinet hail from the "Taliban wing" of American politics.
Published: Jul 12, 2004
Bond urges NAACP to oust Bush
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1419795p-7543839c.html
Letters | A DIVERSITY OF OPINION ON THE NAACP CONVENTION
The Philadelphia Inquirer - 6 hours, 42 minutes ago
THE Daily News quoted NAACP chairman Julian Bond as saying his organization has "always been nonpartisan." Sure! That's why the NAACP is providing a free showing of the highly inaccurate and Bush-bashing "Fahrenheit 9/11" as part of its convention's agenda.
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/9159887.htm?1c
From the Fox News site...http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125522,00.html
BILL O'REILLY HOST: In the"Unresolved Problems" segment tonight: There's no question the NAACP does not like President Bush, in general. Here's what Chairman Julian Bond (search) recently said about the Republican Party.
JULIAN BOND, CHAIRMAN, NAACP: Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and the confederate swastika flying side by side. They draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics .And now, they want to write bigotry back into the constitution.
Ping for the evening FReepers :~)
sw
I agree with you, I also heard President Bush will be addressing the Urban League (of course the media generally ignores that). Who cares about the NAACP anyway? They speak for Blacks like the NOW speaks for women! Kerry looked like a jerk today, his attempts( "[she] just keeps on keepin' on") at "soul" are ridiculous, at that at least, he's no Clinton;)
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