"I believe," Romney started strongly, "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."
He put his hands on the pew on smiled. Nobody applauded, but nobody booed. Until Romney vowed to repeal Obama's health care reforms, the crowd at Wednesday's NAACP conference maintained a comfortable silence interspersed by light clapping. Then they booed, leaving Romney to grin awkwardly while he waited for the crowd's vocal disapproval to end.
"I'm going to eliminate every non-essential, expensive program I can find," Romney said, "that includes Obamacare, and I'm going to work to reform and save…" About 15 seconds past as the crowd shouted and booed.
Romney let his eyes wander from the script on the teleprompter, opting instead for a little impromptu reference to a completely meaningless survey. Trying to persuade the audience that Obamacare hinders job growth, Romney said, "You know, there was a survey of the Chamber of Commerce — they carried out a survey of their members, about 1,500 surveyed, and they asked them what effect Obamacare would have on their plans, and three-quarters of them said it made them less likely to hire people."
Asked to explain their answers, those Chamber members went on to say that one of the perks of being employers is that they get stuff their employees don't. If everybody had healthcare, it wouldn't be fair. Then they ripped up the survey sheet, calling it a stupid, gay, communist piece of paper.
The crowd at the NAACP conference could hardly be called Romney’s constituency; a huge majority of black voters voted for Obama in 2008, which is a fact Romney knows full and well. "With 90 percent of African-Americans voting for Democrats," Romney said, "some of you may wonder why a Republican would bother to campaign in the African American community, and to address the NAACP."
Right, everybody is wondering why a Republican would try to make themselves appealing to African-Americans, who, because they are African-Americans, vote for Democrats. "Of course, one reason is that I hope to represent all Americans, of every race, creed or sexual orientation, from the poorest to the richest and everyone in between."
Not bad, Romney. If only that were even close to true.
Evan McMurry:
Yeah, it seems like a ploy to get video of Romney speaking hard truths to hostile audiences. Obama can smooth talk all he wants, but Romney tells it how it is. Or something to that effect.
July 11, 2012
Bison Messink:
Been funny to watch the Right try to spin this one today. Either saying 'it's not so bad to get booed sometimes,' or better (worse), claiming that this was a cynical, calculated move on Romney's part to show up at the NAACP and get his ass booed on purpose in order to fire up his own base.
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