The Sham Battle For The Black Vote
Jules Witcover

In a conspicuous exercise in futility, Mitt Romney went to Houston the other day to tell delegates to the convention of the antiquatedly named National Association for the Advancement of Colored People why they should vote for him rather than for Barack Obama.

What he got for his trouble was some polite applause mixed with booing as he gamely made his standard case for free enterprise and deregulation from governmental shackles. Maybe he also picked up a few brownie points for venturing into the lion's den of Democratic support, particularly of America's first black president.

But as a man who has had a conspicuously difficult job conveying who he is to doubting voters, Romney's pitch to the NAACP members to take his word for how deeply he empathizes with their needs was rather bizarre.

"I think that if you understood who I truly am in my heart," he implored, "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."

Having said that, Romney kicked off heavy boos by observing that he would "eliminate every nonessential, expensive program I can find, and that includes Obamacare," using the favorite Republican epithet for the President Obama's health care act. From the response, it was clear Romney had just communicated what was in his mind if not in his heart as far as this audience was concerned.

The next day, Obama sent Vice President Joe Biden to speak to the same crowd. Biden, who wears his heart on his sleeve for easy communicating, ignited the convention delegates to lusty cheering and applause in a reminder of who he was and how long he had been at their side.

Rather than going into a long defense of the president's health care plan, he offered himself not as a visitor but as an old friend. "It's good to be home," he began. "Remember what this in its core is all about. What this organization at its core is all about -- the franchise, the right to vote, because with the right to vote we can change things."

He cited the battles he had waged along with the NAACP to end racial profiling, to increase ballot access, fair housing and lending practices without regard to race. "Did you think we'd be fighting these battle again?" he asked.

Biden acknowledged he was "preaching to the choir," and when he said "let me close," the choir urged him to go on -- a plea not often heard by this famously loquacious talker. But he had made his point. He and Obama were family, and no outsider like Mitt Romney was going to change that with vague words about what was in his heart.

Romney attempt at conveying good will to a predictably unsympathetic audience, and Biden's reminder of the history he and the Democratic Party shared with the nation's oldest civil rights organization, projected how loyalty will triumph over good intent among black voters in November.

The only question is whether the huge African-American turnout for Obama four years ago will be replicated this time around. In 2008, he won 95 percent of that vote, and the most Romney can hope for will be a dropoff in enthusiasm in that historic outcome.

In this stage of the campaign, when Romney is weighing his options for a running mate, he's unlikely to find one who will prove to be as strong an asset with any voting bloc as Biden was shown to be with the black community. His long allegiance to it, and his ability to convey what's in his heart rather than just hinting at it as Romney did in Houston, is something the prospective Republican nominee doesn't figure to find in any of the GOP vice-presidential hopefuls.

Therefore, in political terms at least, Romney will probably be better served by picking someone who appeals to his party's conservative base, or is a moderate of the sort Romney himself used to be but now pretends otherwise. And it would be nice, too, if he or she could be regarded as presidential material.

 

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The Sham Battle For The Black Vote | Politics

 

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