Posted on 07/11/2012 8:19:58 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Romney to NAACP: Obama made it worse for you 'in almost every way' By Jonathan Easley - 07/11/12 10:01 AM ET
Mitt Romney will tell the NAACP on Wednesday that President Obama has made it worse for African-Americans “in almost every way.”
“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, then a chronically bad economy would be equally bad for everyone,” Romney will say, according to prepared remarks provided by his campaign. “Instead, it’s worse for African-Americans in almost every way. The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income and median family wealth are all worse for the black community.”
While Obama leads Romney 92 percent to 2 among black voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday, Romney hopes his economic pitch will resonate with a group that has been disproportionately affected by the economic downturn. He's made a similar appeal to other voting blocs, such as Hispanics and women.
Romney will acknowledge the historic nature of Obama’s 2008 campaign, in which he became the country’s first black president, but will also make the case for his own candidacy.
"I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African-American families, you would vote for me for president," the presumptive GOP nominee will say. "I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color — and families of any color — more than the policies and leadership of President Obama, I would not be running for president."
He also will make the argument that Obama’s economic policies are creating similar barriers to those that civil rights activists fought hard to remove.
“If someone had told us in the 1950s or '60s that a black citizen would serve as the 44th president, we would have been proud and many would have been surprised,” Romney will say. “Picturing that day, we might have assumed that the American presidency would be the very last door of opportunity to be opened. Before that came to pass, every other barrier on the path to equal opportunity would surely have to come down.
“Of course, it hasn’t happened quite that way. Many barriers remain. Old inequities persist. In some ways, the challenges are even more complicated than before. And across America — and even within your own ranks — there are serious, honest debates about the way forward.”
The former Massachusetts governor will cite unemployment among African-Americans, which at 14.4 percent is well above the national average of 8.2.
“I am running for president because I know that my policies and vision will help hundreds of millions of middle-class Americans of all races, will lift people from poverty, and will help prevent people from becoming poor,” Romney will say. “My campaign is about helping the people who need help. The course the president has set has not done that — and will not do that. My course will.”
Romney will also focus on education, which earlier in the primary season he referred to as “the civil rights issue of our era.” Romney says he will “give the parents of every low-income and special-needs student the chance to choose where their child goes to school,” and will link federal education funds to the student, which he says will open the opportunity for children of poor families to attend charter and private schools.
“If equal opportunity in America were an accomplished fact, black families could send their sons and daughters to public schools that truly offer the hope of a better life,” Romney will say. “Instead, for generations, the African-American community has been waiting and waiting for that promise to be kept. Today, black children are 17 percent of students nationwide — but they are 42 percent of the students in our worst-performing schools.”
Obama will not address the NAACP convention this year, but Vice President Biden is scheduled to speak on Thursday.
Better to be excoriated for telling the truth.
Organ stings? Mitt has music now???
Somebody please tell Mitt. He’s not an actor in a silly soap opera. This is in deadly earnest.
I agree. It’s not about changing minds, or even getting votes. It’s about going into a hostile environment and saying at least some of what needs to be said. It’s what leaders do.
Interesting that Obama isn’t even bothering to go to the NAACP; he’s sending Plugs. Arrogance again. He has time to play 200 rounds of golf, but doesn’t even need to bother to show respect to the organization that still represents the “black establishment” on some level.
Hey, when you lead 92-2, why bother?
Mitt’s about as lefty as they come in the GOP, and it’s hilarious how Obama points at Mitt and hollers about what a horrible right wing nut he is.
Education is the 1 issue that Republicans win among blacks... Because they see and are living the failed public school experience. This should be shouted loud and proud, every single day!
I know they won’t switch overnight, but they are fed up sending their kids to failed schools.
Did they all get up and stomp out the door in outrage as soon as he walked in?
I wouldn’t expect a game changing speech for that crowd. What has happened is like a criminal defense attorney addressing a jury and presenting them with a scyntilla of “reasonable doubt”.
When little seeds of doubt are sewn into your opponant’s garden, the November Harvest might be thinner than assumed.
Obama has assumed that Latinos and Blacks will not require any more tending & fertilization after dumping yards of liberal manure on them over the last three years.
Romney walked in and pointed out to the target audience that all that governemnt fertilizer is nothing more than horse-dung. They resent him for that, but that doesn’t mean he is wrong in their eyes.
Go away troll.
I thought the NAACP was gone.
What exactly is their ‘job’ ?
Do they collect dues from all ‘colored people’?
If so, how do I tell what color I am ?
Once I am a ‘colored people’, what benefits do I get ?
If an attender to the meeting even listened with a fraction of an open mind they would know Mitt was correct, but doubt if one would.
I heard the music was from the NAACP, not Romney. Don’t know if it’s true, but I doubt Romney would have wanted organ music playing. A rap act, perhaps...
i agree....more and more black Americans are starting to see the light; by no means the majority but if somehow Romney can pull in 10% of the black vote that would be a kick in the balls to liberals and obozo...
The ABR’s could care less. They would have been in the crowd booing mittens as well along w the others.
I'm sure the music wasn't from anyone on his team. But I expect the organ stings to be SOP for speakers at the NAACP. (Unless the organist was just trying to mock him.)
WHY OBAMA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT POOR BLACKS
by National Black Republican Association NBRA on Monday, July 9, 2012 at 4:59pm ·
“Since becoming president, Obama has created 17% black unemployment. He also terminated welfare reform in his budget, which stopped the use of the money to help blacks get jobs and off of welfare. Republican intervention in Congress forced Obama to reinstate welfare reform. Obama has sided with his left-wing supporters in the teachers’ unions, acting against the best interest of poor black children. He eliminated funding for the DC school choice opportunity scholarship program that was helping black parents get their children out of failing schools. The article by Dick Armey “School Choice = Good for Kids, Bad for Unions. Can’t Politicians Do the Math?” explains how Republicans made Obama reinstate the school choice program in DC.
Obama has done nothing to solve our nation’s housing crisis that was created by Democrats who forced banks to make loans to people who could not pay them back. To see just how blacks were devastated by the housing market crash read the article “How Obama Bankrupted Black Homeowners.”
In a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus, Obama had the gall to tell black people to stop complaining and stop whining about the harm he has caused and go out to vote for him. Thomas Sowell in his article “Stop Whining? “ points out just how insulting Obama is to black Americans, while catering to other groups, such as gays and Hispanics.”
Interesting read. Really hope blacks wake up before November.
***Obama will not address the NAACP convention this year***
Coward.
You didn't watch his speech did you? He definitely didn't pander to the NAACP today. Told them how it is.
***Obama will not address the NAACP convention this year***
Coward.
Hopefully his Speech will mean that his support from Blacks will increase 50%, to 3%.
On another note, what White Only Group will Obama be addressing? Turnabout is fair play.
Thank you.
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