Romney Gets Boos at NAACP Speech
Mitt Romney heard hefty booing and scattered applause on Wednesday during a speech to the NAACP, a barely-needed reminder that the presumptive Republican nominee badly lags President Obama among black voters and in other communities of color.
But Romney's appearance before the venerable NAACP may prove more effective in luring to his cause voters with more demographic similarity to the former Massachusetts governor: suburban white voters who like the idea of a candidate working to stretch beyond his traditional base.
Romney does not often seek out large groups of black voters – one of the few times he did, at a predominantly black Philadelphia charter school, he was met with jeers on the street and skeptics in the school. But then, as now, speaking to minorities – even if he has little hope of cutting Obama's lead – makes him appear inclusive. Suburban voters, a key voting bloc for Romney, want a candidate who embraces diversity, and the NAACP appearance allows him to do just that.
Wednesday's audience did not audibly buy into Romney's argument, echoed among other Republicans, that Obama's policies are harmful to African Americans because they are harmful to all Americans, a sort of sinking-tide-lowers-all-boats approach that Republicans have also attempted with Latino voters.
Romney's assertion, “If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him,” was met with heckling.
The most sustained booing came when Romney pledged he would “eliminate every nonessential expensive program I can find, that includes Obamacare.”
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, the Missouri Democrat who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, graded Mitt Romney with an “F-minus” for discussing his plans to repeal Obamacare before the NAACP. He called the audience's booing of Romney "inappropriate, but predictable" due to the Republican's designs on eliminating the health care expansion. Cleaver added that Romney was owed "an A" for making the appearance.
The NAACP speech is unlikely to have any real effect on black voter support. According to a June Pew poll, black voter engagement remains high. That, coupled with Obama's staggering lead, means Romney can do little more than posture before a group he has no hopes of winning.
