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."
He is going to make health care a right ! At what cost ?
Oh, now he is saying that we are not in control of our own security and destiny because of Middle East Oil. (Tell me again why they blocked that energy bill, John!!!)
Making it sound like war for oil.
Did Michael Moore write this speech?
I wonder if he'll be campaigning on Nantucket front porches while on his 4 day pre-convention vacation.
Now he says kids aren't playing because their parents are afraid to let them lest they hurt themselves and they don't have the insurance to pay for it.
That was his segue into healthcare.
Talking about suffering of a person undergoing chemo and having to work to keep insurance.
Describes the pain and agony as if Republicans are personally inflicting it upon this person. Yes, he is as he keeps bringing it up as a "value" and when he's in the WH it will be "accessible and affordable"
He says he has a plan to get the greed out of healthcare.
Now onto oil. God only gave us 3% of oil, middle east has 60%. Time to have leadership that has a "value" that says we need to be energy independent. He claims he has a plan.
So no man in uniform is ever held hostage to the need for oil from the middle east.
So, he is outright saying (he's repeating it AGAIN) that this was "War for Oil".
As I say, I expect the New York Times to rip Republicans when they dare to respond to this pompous jerk.
It's pure cynicism.
You know his spindocs sat down with him after going over the demographics and the papers from the focus groups, and told him something like, "Throw a lot of that bible crap at 'em, a lot of those older negroes go for that sh!+ bigtime. Juice it up real good, you'll have 'em eating out of your hand. And besides, where else are they gonna go?"
He BETTER NOT show up on my front porch. My dogs will have a feast. I'm sick of him stressing values. Whoopie just got fired for his values. We done good, btw.
This guy is a fake, a pseur, a creep, a weasel, and should NOT be even a Senator, let alone a presidential candidate.
Don't look now, but it appears to be heading toward a mudslide.
Now on to Sudan and he calls it genocide. We must act.
The U.S. should lead.
Everyone of you sitting there knows that we should lead, but what this administration decided to do in Iraq has pushed away our friends and lost support throughout the world.
This is a breathtaking assault on the administration.
He brings up "the lesson of Rwanda".
He says as president he'd lead and address.
He makes me sick.
"Where your heart is there is your treasure also." Kerry: his heart is after pandering for votes. Treasure: sure isn't about what's good for America or Americans.
Oh, now he is going on to AIDS. Trying to make it sound like HE is the first person to deal with AIDS.
Not so. It EXPOSED the enemies: FRANCE, GERMANY, and RUSSIA.
The thought of this moron being president scares the crap out of me. He is going to give everybody everything for "free", yea right, he will raise taxes and put more people under the poverty level.
Now patronizing the blacks.
My suggestion for W would be to address a black conservative group like the Lincoln Institute, Black Pac or maybe Project 21!
That way he could present his values, platform and achievements to a black forum who would genuinely be interested in what he has to say.
Now talking about fighting AIDS.
Societies ravaged by AIDS are havens for terrorists.
How can you see the suffering and just turn away (earth to effin--we haven't).
I despise this man.
Now onto "This is the most important election of our lifetime"
lists the issues "on the line".
He's really making me mad, but you are all so funny. This is why I love FreeRepublic.(Please God, make him mute, I don't think I can stand anymore of JFK)
sw
Now with the "make sure every vote is counted" crap.
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