Bush, Desperate for Fall 2006 Votes, Deigns to Speak to NAACP
A presidential visit to the NAACP confab should be unremarkable news, since the group's annual convention has been addressed by every US president since Republican disaster Herbert Hoover more than 70 years ago.
It should be unremarkable news... but it's not. President Bush has notoriously spurned the NAACP's annual speaking invitation each of his five years in office (although he did speak as a 2000 presidential candidate). Bush and Cheney didn't give a damn about the NAACP, because they didn't need them. It's no deeper than that.
But now they need African-American votes. The polls for the crucial November 2006 mid-tern elections are foreboding for Republican leadership. Republicans are at risk of losing control of both the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Should Republicans lose control of just one Congressional house, the Bush Administration immediately enters political lame-duck status.... which would be catastrophic to their agenda of more tax cuts for the wealthy, more cuts to Medicare and education, another attempt to privatize Social Security, and the continued opportunity to funnel $8 billion monthly into Iraq and Afghanistan.
So George Bush may apparently speak at the NAACP convention on Thursday, and pretend that he suddenly cares about civil rights causes. Or that he always cared about civil rights causes, but in prior years, was too busy vacationing at his Texas ranch to attend their summer get-together.
Here's my suggestion. Run some CNN footage of the folks at the New Orleans SuperDome in the early days of Katrina, and ask him to comment on his compassion for the poor and minority disenfranchised of America. Ask what he's doing now to help those beleaguered people. Ask him about the progress of New Orleans reconstruction. Ask him about the status of the eloquent promises he made in New Orlean's Jefferson Square on September 15, 2005.
His response, or lack of it, will tell NAACP delegates all they need to know about this Republican administration's intentions towards civil rights and African-American voters.
Related Reading
Race, Poverty and the White House Response to New Orleans Victims
Senator Barack Obama Condemns White House Indifference to Poverty
Bush Pledges Nation's Help for Gulf Coast, CNN on September 16, 2005
Bush May Speak at NAACP Convention, Ending Boycott, Los Angeles Times on July 18, 2006
Comments
….or don’t bother listening to a proven liar.
Wow.
Tell me again, why he is expected to show up and address a group of people who would never vote for him in the first place?
And why should the President be involved in the rebuilding of New Orleans? What part of the Constitution says he has to supervise things that ought to be managed at the state level?
What a moonbat.