[JulieRNR21]

Juan Williams, senior correspondent for NPR and political analyst for Fox News Channel, is the author of "My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience."

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

We can post full NYTimes articles can't we?

[DM1]

oh please this guy probably just wants Bush to spend money on a lost cause

[CzarNicky]

I'm pretty sure that any blacks who want to vote for Republicans will be welcome in the Republican party.

[Solamente]

Juan Williams is a two-faced poormouth, whose credibility is supect depending what microphone is under his nose.

[hobbes1]

Oh Man, JUAN WILLIAMS, reaching out towards Bush???????


That is not good news for Frenchie.

[Mister Baredog]

How can he attract those votes?

By doing exactly what he's been doing for 3 plus years. Lead.

[linear]

Compelling and thoughtful article. I'm sure Juan will get a lot of grief back in the NPR newsroom for writing it.

[Mikey_1962]

Juan put out the blueprint, time for George to follow it.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Great article from a surprising source. He is absolutely right. Bush should really give an all out effort to reach blacks and hispanics. So many of them are conservatives who oddly vote Democrat. They just need a counter to the false info they get from the left about Republicans. GO BUSH!

[Conspiracy Guy]

Juan is selling short the intelligence of black voters. Most of my black friends are middle class and most of them like Bush and fear Kerry.

I personally can't stand this crap about every segment of the public needing to be reached out to. Seniors, Blacks, Latinos, Soccer Moms, Christians, Convenience Store Clerks, and on and on.

America lost it's soul when Americans decided they wanted to be called something else.

I'm Irish and Cherokee and I want to be called an American and if a man does what's right for America, he gets my vote. Currently that man is George W. Bush.

[Warhammer]

Juan Williams actually trying to advise President Bush constructively? Wow.

[bayourod]

"A 2002 poll by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research group based in Washington, found a shift in the political identification of black voters"

Did the pollsters try handing out walkin-round money while taking the poll? If not, the poll isn't reflective of voting conditions.

[scouse]

But in a close race, the key to re-election rests on the president's ability to increase his percentage of the black vote.

In the last presidential election I believe about 85+% of the black vote went to the dems. How they can become "KEY" in the next election evades me.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Not a bad column, considering the source. President Bush can make inroads into the black vote, in my opinion, but not by moving to the left, and embracing affirmative action, as Williams seems to be implying that he should do.

Signs of hope for increasing the black GOP vote:

• The black middle class is expanding. Suburbs are no longer lily-white. And pollsters, let's not go to the ghetto, measure black sentiment, and assume all black voters are the same. Those who have escaped the ghetto (by virtue of economic ability, and adoption of the mindset that self-segregation is absurd) are more likely to be open to the possibility of voting Republican.

• The reaction of younger blacks to Bill Cosby's remarks, noted by Williams, is encouraging. I've seen it myself.

• Each year, we have more black columnists and journalists, more blacks in high Administration posts, and more black GOP candidates (who almost always seem to be conservative Republicans as opposed to RINOs).

• Many blacks, even those who cling to the old affirmative action crutch, are social conservatives -- on issues such as faith-based initiatives, school vouchers, and gay marriage, to name a few. Economic conservatism is slower in coming, but I doubt that successful (that is,tax-paying) blacks like high taxes and mushrooming "entitlement" programs more than anyone else.

• In the War in Iraq and elsewhere in the military, black soldiers, officers, and Pentagon strategists have distinguished themselves. I think there may be an opening to generate among some blacks some skepticism about Kerry's qualifications to be Commander in Chief, in light of his past actions and voting record.

President Bush and the party need to aim their message not at blacks, per se, but at middle-class ordinary Americans who happen to be black.

A black surge to the GOP won't happen overnight. But breaking into the low double digits soon is a worthwhile goal, and could be the first step away from the plantation run by Rev. Jackson, Rev. Sharpton, and their ilk.

[Dr Snide]

Ways Bush could increase his share of the Black Vote

1. Anti-abortion stance: Poll after poll show African American voters to be MORE Pro-life than any other ethnic group

2. Gay Marriage: Again, poll after poll show African Americans to be more anti-gay marriage than white voters. And as long as the democrats compare gay rights to the civil rights movement they will lose Black voters

3. 15 Billion for Aids in Africa

4. Positions of power in administration (Powell, Rice, etc)

5. Go to black churches. Please go to Black Churches. Bush can relate to other christians in a way that is impossible for Kerrey. Use this to your advantage.

6. Faith based initiatives

7. History. Lincoln- Republican, Civil Rights Act-passed over the objections of Democrats in congress. KKK members-Democrats (see Robert Byrd).

In the end the Republicans will win on cultural issues and Bush has to lose his fear of these issues. Its how he can eat into not only the African American but also the Moderate democrat and Hispanic vote. Why do you think the left goes nuts whenever these issues are raised, they know its their biggeset weakness.

[McGavin999]

We are already making significant inroads to the black community. I get sick of hearing there is some kind of monolithic "black vote" where people don't think for themselves. They fought not to have to sit at the back of the bus and now they are allowing themselves to be relegated to the back of a political party and are being told they should just be happy they are getting lip service from those who claim to represent them.

I don't know about you, but I get sick at my stomach every time I see a white politician standing in a black church trying to "sound black" and convincing good people that they are working for them when they have done nothing but use them.

[LadyPilgrim]

As a voting Republican, I have been associated with a lot of Black people over the years and find that they are as independent and as savvy as anyone. Some of these people are close friends of ours.

I know a lot of them who will vote and do support the Republican party.
I think there is simply a "presumption" on how Blacks, as a whole, vote. I don't find that to necessarily be the case.

But I'm not dense to the "voting block" of Black folks that do support the Dems however.

I am just saying, there are many that DO vote Republican. And they don't like to be considered a part of that Dem voting block.

[Redbob]

"How can he attract those votes?"

Let me guess:
Pandering?

[Landru]

*Juan* Williams, huh?

...>click<.

[Don Simmons]

As is the case with many elections past, the key is not really to reach out to any particular demographic, but to energize and activate the Conservative electorate as a whole.

Voter apathy is a major problem in this country. But over and above that, voter ignorance is more far-reaching in the potential to sway an election. I'd rather have a scenario of ignorant people not vote at all rather than cast their votes based on shallow and/or erroneous information. (By ignorant, I mean under-educated and mis-informed/under-informed leeches on society.)

Let's lay our cards on the table here -- ignorant people are simply more impressionable and more easily influenced to adopt an opinion and cast a vote based on half-truths, rhetoric and propaganda. They don't really care to educate themselves on the processes of government and politics, yet they readily stand in protest of things that don't satisfy their "needs". They want to have a government program they can fall back on for each and every one of their own inadequacies. When they don't get it -- it becomes a case of being held down by the man all over again.

In order for President Bush to "reach out" to people usually kept at an arm's distance from Conservative values, he would have to either start doing things they like or try to give the impression he is doing so. Either way, this man would be compromising his values and principles. He is certainly a man of principle, a fact that in and of itself scares people who have little or no principles themselves. After all, why should they be held responsible for securing their own future and being responsible for their own actions? Isn't that what the government is there for?

You know, the fact that this country is so polarized and liberals hate our President as much as they do puts me at ease and tells me we are on the right path for long-term greater good. If they liked his policies and actions, I would have to seriously question our path.

Likewise, the fact that he won't get a lot of the votes from certain demographic groups assures me that his policies are on the right track.

Of course, that may mean we don't get another four years. It's a bad Catch-22 we're in, seems to me. So, then -- what is the answer?

The prospect of a repeat of 1992 sickens me, I must admit. I really do not want to see another liberal pinko step in and take the credit for the hard work and forward thinking actions of others. As much as I know President Bush is the right man at this time in our country's history, a small part of me thinks he was elected four years too early.

Had algore won in 2000, he would have had to deal with all the issues left over from the clinton years and try to pick up those pieces.

- The economy would have still tanked because clinton did nothing to underpin and sustain the economic growth he inherited from Reagan/Bush...

- We would have still had the 9/11 attacks...

- There would still be the urgent need for us to counter radical Islam as the greatest threat to world peace and stability since communism....

- He would have failed miserably and our country would be far worse off than we are right now because he would have tried to do as clinton did and placate an enemy who wants nothing less than our total demise...

Maybe that would have showed the leftist, socialist pansies in this country the error of their short-sighted ways.

Then again, knowing the small-mindedness of these "people", they would still find a way to shirk responsibility and blame the Republicans....wouldn't they?

Yes, they certainly would......