Queue the Red Cross telethon raising money for victims of recent wild fires. Mike Myers cringes as Kanye West breaks script and blurts out:
Black People don’t care for Mitt Romney.
That would pretty much summarize the response Mitt Romney got during his speech before the NAACP today:
(You can watch the whole awkward Romney speech here.)
Says CNN correspondent Jim Acosta:
I have to tell you… I’ve been covering the Romney campaign for a year now[….] I have not heard that kind of sustained booing for Mitt Romney during the course of this campaign. […] This was, perhaps, one of the most negative reactions Mitt Romney has had in the course of his 2012 presidential campaigns.
Here are some photos of the audience reaction.
Last night, the twittersphere was all a-tweet with the hash tag #ThingsRomneyShouldntSayToNAACP. You know, things like
Freedom of Teach @FreedomofTeach
My wife drives a couple of Cadillacs, so we have that in common. #ThingsRomneyShouldntSayToNAACP
Er. D.-OBAMA2012 @esd2000
#ThingsRomneyShouldntSayToTheNAACP I’m a big fan of the Basketball contests you guys all love.
Shrink’g Mdl Class @alohaGOP
“I had a dream too – but mine came true, obviously.” #fakelaugh #ThingsRomneyShouldntSayToNAACP
Who knew the #OneThingRomneyReallyShouldntHaveSaid is written into his day-to-day stump speech.
(BTW: You can follow my twitter feed here.)
I bet if he had pandered to them he would have received a different response.
I would prefer he tell them how he would govern and let the chips fall where they may.
Mitt Romney is NOT going to be the candidate selected at the convention. He’s a sideshow, the distraction while the real powerbrokers behind the scenes are already setting up the surprise.
They’ll nominate Jeb Bush or someone like Pete Wilson. And that will be who goes up against Obama. It isn’t going to be Mittens. Mittens is just too visibly dirty and they know this full well.
Serial Conservative,
“I would prefer he tell them how he would govern and let the chips fall where they may.”
Me, too. No more “Compassionate Conservatism” bullshit and “I don’t want to try to put our troops in all places at all times. I don’t want to be the world’s policeman. I want to be the world’s peacemaker….” lies.
Indeed, kudos to Romney for sticking to what he believes (this year, anyway) and not pandering.
@ 3
One of my fondest memories is of Paul Tsongas telling people he wasn’t going to blow sunshine up their asses:
http://articles.latimes.com/19.....ial-issues
I think it hurt him in the ’92 campaign but it endeared me to him as much as I could be endeared to a Democrat.
Other examples of honesty by Democrats didn’t work out so well (Wiki):
When he made his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention, Mondale said: “By the end of my first term, I will reduce the Reagan budget deficit by two-thirds. Let’s tell the truth. It must be done, it must be done. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won’t tell you. I just did.”
“It isn’t going to be Mittens. Mittens is just too visibly dirty and they know this full well.”
Yeah….but does Mittens know?
On the other hand, do his backers know? If they’re pouring this much cash into what they know is only a sideshow, how much are they prepared to fork out for the main event?
“Black People don’t care for Mitt Romney.”
That’s not exactly a news flash. A lot of white people don’t care for Barack Obama, but Obama will win in November because he’s more likely to come up with free stuff for minorities than any other candidate.
Yep, on election night, Chris Matthews over at MSNBC will have tingles running up and down his legs again. He might even have a stiffy over the Obama victory, but they usually don’t show that kind of thing on camera.
@1 kind of like how he panders to you. What a great Candidate. He has no values for anyone except himself and the 1%.
@1 – I think he did pander to them by bringing in Traditional Marriage. If that’s not pandering I don’t know what is. How about giving them something more than just a minimum wage job with no benefits.
It’s not as if Romney held back:
Romney to NAACP: Obama made it worse for you ‘in almost every way’
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-.....-every-way
He didn’t go for the pretty, Obama-esque applause lines:
But Romney, who paused to let the crowd respond, deviated from his prepared remarks to double-down on his pledge.
“I say again, if our priority is jobs, and that’s my priority, that’s something I’d change,” Romney said, referring to a study indicating that the healthcare law makes employers less likely to hire.
Read it all.
@ 8
Gman:
This is pandering:
http://digitaljournal.com/article/321733
It’s easy pandering, too, because only one word change is necessary, depending on which country’s leader Obama is in the process of lying to at any given time.
On the drive in this morning, I was hearing the news reports of the remarks and audio response, along with pundits speculating. One gave credit to Romney for appearing before a hostile crowd. Another gave him credit for sticking to his talking points. Another pointed out that he had nothing to lose, his support among blacks is in the low single digits.
But what none of them pointed out was that perhaps Romney’s real message wasn’t to the black audience at the NAACP convention. These people aren’t independents, they are devoted civil rights workers who have made up their mind a long time ago. His real message was probably to the white racists – he wanted to appear strong in the face of minority resistence, refusing to give in to their demands.
I expect the conservative blogosphere to spend the next couple of days talking about how “rude” the delegates were to Romney – clearly those “non-whites” (to use a polite term) don’t know their place!
Serial Conservative @ 9,
“Romney to NAACP: Obama made it worse for you ‘in almost every way’”
This is, of course TOTAL PANDERING BULLSHIT!
Is Romney criticizing Obama for not creating more Guvment-Run Affirmative Action Programs?!?! Is that Romney’s solution?
Sadly, as Governor of MA:
Romney talks one way now, but acted in just the opposite way as “an executive.” The word “fraud” comes to mind.
Bob, why do you continue to discredit yourself this way. We all had high hopes that you would continue to provide actual contributions to the comment threads (as you have successfully done on occasion in the past). Sadly, you are under going the process of Puddification*
*Becoming so discredited that your comments are nearly universally skipped over by all but a few who want to respond just to fuck with you.
re 1: “I would prefer he tell them how he would govern and let the chips fall where they may.”
Lots of people would like that. But Mitt has not been very forthcoming on that or any other subject.
re 9: “I say again, if our priority is jobs, and that’s my priority, that’s something I’d change,” Romney said, referring to a study indicating that the healthcare law makes employers less likely to hire.”
If that were true, Republicans would be in favor of it.
re 6: “That’s not exactly a news flash. A lot of white people don’t care for Barack Obama, but Obama will win in November because he’s more likely to come up with free stuff for minorities than any other candidate.”
This is beneath you. Are you trying to get back in with the iggrint wingnuts at (un)SP?
This is a set up, a dog whistle to his racist base: the darkies booing his pledge to repeal O’Care and go after “government programs”, etc. mainlines to their lizard brains.
This will be a base election and mitt’s performance is totally calculated to rile the racist base of the R party.
Hating on Black People IS a rethuglicant Family Value.
@ 12
Darryl, for the second time this day I have found myself wondering if you ever call out liberals for doing what you believe I am doing.
I seem to see it an awful lot on HA. I suppose you have a life and trailing RR would take far much more out of it than trailing me does and so it slides with the others.
You seem to be pointing out that Romney would be no better than Obama based on Romney’s history as governor, and you link a piece that about 90% quotes a leader of the NAACP. Well, fair enough, I suppose.
About the issue of what Romney said, that Obama’s policies have made things worse for African-Americans in almost every way…….
Was he wrong? Because I would think that you would counter what he said about Obama, rather than counter with Romney’s past, if Romney was incorrect.
Better access to health care would seem to me to be a positive for African-Americans. What else has Obama done that offsets, oh, say, the unemployment rate for that minority, and the increased competition they will face for jobs now that immigration rules have been relaxed?
Shorter Serial “I will never apologize for making jokes about the looks of African Americans cause that the kind of classy guy I am.” Conservative: Wahhaaa. Wahhaaa. Wahhaaa.
@9
Romney wasn’t going to get the NAACP vote. There’s nothing he could say or do to get their vote. But, he couldn’t not show up. Romney had a choice between showing up and talking pretty while saying nothing or showing up and delivering a speech that was really for his base.
Romney’s base will dig this:
I suspect the negatives on this were a little higher than what the Romney camp was counting on, but in a few days this will be forgotten and life will go on. I doubt this changes anything.
@18
He calls me out for engaging trolls when they’re off topic and for posting stuff without enough of my own commentary. Different strokes for different folks.
What’s the republican health care plan?
I have not heard ANY discussion from you or any conservative about a better plan.
@ 22
To whom are you addressing your question? I don’t think Mitt can hear you from where he’s standing.
I would say that Republican policies have made things worse for African-Americans in almost every way…….
The democrats have policies and initiatives that the republicans have fought every step of the way. You want a villain, look the republican obstructionism.
But I’m not like you, just throwing out baseless claims. I have a link.
http://www.sodahead.com/united.....n-2562781/
For Example:
I know you have your list, of the conservative crap that would gut environmental regulations or strip workers of rights. Those don’t count.
@ 20
I agree that little will be changed. Wasn’t my idea to go with this thread on HA.
I see nothing awwwwwwkkkkkkwwwwwwwarrrrrrrdddddd about walking in to a less-than-friendly audience and laying it out.
If he makes them think about the reasons they still support Obama, that’s all he can reasonably achieve, even if they still pull the lever for The One.
They drink the sand because they don’t know the difference.
I might have heard that somewhere once.
@23 I know you don’t have the authority to post anything substantial about the republicans, we would just shoot it full of justifiable holes. Just forward the question to your boss.
@ 26, 22
If it was directed to me, search my screen names and S-CHIP. I’ve gone into my thoughts, extensively, on that at least twice. 6 million uncovered kids and a program already in existence that’s supposed to cover them.
Let’s do it this time. It’s 20% of what Obamacare purportedly covers, and it’s children. Start there and build. Allocate more funding and more resources.
Since you said @ 22 you haven’t heard of another plan, maybe google Paul Ryan Health Care Plan. If you have dismissed all other alternatives because you don’t find them better, then you’re set in stone and I believe Obamacare is a disaster, and we have nothing to talk about because opinions won’t be changed.
But I’m pretty sure you had forgotten about the Ryan plan. Most often when people on HA say there’s no plan (on any topic) on the GOP side, they don’t know that one exists or if they do they don’t know what’s in it.
He wasn’t doing that. He was making a speech to his base though them. Happens all the time, by all sorts of people.
@ 28
I wonder if CPAC invited Obama to speak.
Romney is in it to win it…unlike McCain.
Romney is not conceding any groups.
Students, Blacks, Hispanic, Gay…he is not afraid to stand up and ask for their vote.
Has Obama addressed the National Rifle Assoc in person recently???
And does anyone really care what a punk like Kanye West thinks?? I mean, come on. This guy is a total embarrassment to law-abiding, church-going Black Americans.
Romney’s theme, at the NCAAP convention, was the President’s economic ideas didn’t work, and it was hurting minorities.
I would counter that what we still had over the past 3-1/2 years, with a few exceptions, was the GOP economic plan.
This was implemented by the GOP meeting held on the evening of Pres. Obama’s inaugeration where the party leadership agreed that the way to beat Obama in 2012 was to make sure his economic recovery agenda was never implemented, and then blame him for the result. Lacking a majority in either house of Congress, they first used the “Senate Hold” (previously known as the filibuster), for any votes where the Democrates couldn’t get a super-majority of at least 60 votes. Then once they gained the House in 2010, they used the House to block any legislation offered by the President for the next two years.
So with only a few noticeable exceptions (Tarp II, the rescue of the American auto industry, and the ACA), America’s government has reached the same stalemate it experienced since 2006, when the Democrats seized control of Congress and Bush pledged to veto any legislation he hadn’t proposed to them.
In the meantime, Romney and the GOP want to reverse even the faint attempts at economic reform, returning to the system which made the top wage-earners increasingly wealthy, lax oversight of investment and banking, and otherwise turn control of the ecomony over to the friendly guys who know far more about how to take your money from you and spend it on themselves than any government employee could ever dream.
A plan, like the Ryan plan, that is much much worse does not count.
SChip expansion is your personal vision. It doesn’t stand a chance given the republican congress.
Republican Opposition to SCHIP Expansion Bill Begins to Take Shape
January 27, 2009 ( I know, it’s a while back )
@22 “What’s the republican health care plan?”
I’d say Rick Scott just provided an example in his administration’s response to Florida’s current outbreak of tuberculosis.
@ 32
A plan, like the Ryan plan, that is much much worse does not count.
This is why I won’t play your games with demands for lists and ‘Where’s the plan?’
‘Doesn’t count’?
You demand I provide answers and you arbitrarily exclude things you don’t like as nonresponsive.
This is why no one picked you for street football. Game’s no fun when the rules are subject to change on a whim.
@29
Doubt it. It would have been interesting to see how they (Obama’s people) handled it.
You grow whinier by the day. Did they lower your per-word pay at the wingnut mothership? Maybe you Republican troll-drones should unionize – they probably can’t ship your job off to an Indian call-center, not by the time of the election, anyway.
You’re simply making excuses – not very good ones – for not having a positive, affirmative argument FOR a Mitt Romney presidency.
Oh, this is extremely funny – Mitt read from the teleprompter “End of quote” at the end of a MLK quote while speaking at the NAACP meeting.
MITT RMONEY FUCKED UP USING THE TELEPROMPTER.
Guess we won’t hear Sarah Palin screeching about the ‘teleprompter president’ again.
Talk about being “whiny”….
Rush Limbaugh is claiming the Romney was bood “because he’s white”.
Limbaugh is back on his old reverse-discrimination rant again.
In the meantime, the Republican House of Representatives voted to cut food stamps aid again, and a banker in south Georgia boarded a ferry in Key West after sending notes to his families and regulators. He aparantly took 17 Million U.S. with him.
Liberal Scientist @ 37,
That is funny! My latest tweet:
Then by all means, list what you think the republicans will put forward that is better. I don’t mean to stifle you. Have at.
I look forward to your answers.
[Deleted — off topic, see HA Comment Policy]
[Deleted — off topic, see HA Comment Policy]
Nice to see Rmoney shouting out to local African-American leader and Rmoney supporter Mr. Puddles.
Puddles, Rmoney knows you are fighting the good fight!
Hey, how many African-Americans ever worked for Bain Capital?
I don’t think this was awkward for Romney at all.
What is going to be awkward is for Jesse Jackson Jr. to try to convince his constituents that he has a “mood disorder” when most people know he’s fuckin’ nuts, crazy, a lunatic.
Will be interesting to see what comes out about this and how the Black community responds.
Wolf Blitzer, today:
Here is something I’d like to say to President Obama: You should have attended the NAACP convention in Houston today. Mitt Romney did. It was the right thing to do. The Republican knows the nation’s oldest civil-rights group isn’t exactly friendly turf but went anyway.
http://www.nationalreview.com/.....ng-preside
Romney got a standing O at the NAACP? Now THAT’s awwwwwwwwkkkkkkkkwwwwwwaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrdddddddddd.
@46
You have become a parody of yourself.
K-Lo? Really? You’re peddling NRO and K-LO as something we should pay attention to?
You’re playing up Wolf the fool’s comments?
Pathetic. You are becoming just another puddy.
Romney spoke at NAACP for one reason and one only: to get boo’d by black people, so as to increase his cracker cred.
Romney spoke at NAACP for one reason and one only: to get boo’d by black people, so as to increase his cracker cred.
Let’s review his options:
1. He declines the invitation. He dissed America’s oldest pro-AA organization. Disrespectful. Racially motivated snub. You know the drill.
2. He accepts the invitation and tells the NAACP crowd what it wants to hear. Which would be pandering and would be called out in no uncertain terms as such by left and right, probably correctly so.
3. He accepts the invitation and makes his point, with a not-unexpected negative response by much of his audience. He’s accused of burnishing his ‘cracker cred’ by doing so.
Tell me, Lib Sci, is there any one scenario you could envision in which Romney could have handled this without creating some negative response from you?
Didn’t think so.
@ 47, 48
Tell me, Lib Sci, is there any one scenario you could envision in which Romney could have handled this without creating some negative response from you?
You know, I think I could have answered this question had I waited just a little longer. Romney could have skipped the convention, demonstrating Obama-like bravery, and instead sent someone with whom NAACP would have had little quarrel. A surrogate.
Romney could have sent someone like Condi Rice.
Jesus H., imagine the outcry had he done something like that. Had she spoken this morning instead of Romney, I do believe one of those veins on Lawrence O’Donnell’s forehead would literally have burst on camera tonite.
Lib Sci, Romney was in a delicate position, he dealt with it in a straightforward manner, and you don’t like the result. Deal with it.
[Deleted — off topic, see HA Comment Policy]
@50 I’ll send the bill for my share rung up by Reagan and Bush to the RNC.
Is Romney Insane?
There’s plenty of evidence in the quotes above, but this is affirmative proof: Romney not only denied outsourcing jobs but called Obama the “Outsourcer in Chief.” Really. I’m not kidding. Romney accused Obama of outsourcing jobs. That’s all the certificate you need to conclude the man is certifiably nuts.
re 48: “Tell me, Lib Sci, is there any one scenario you could envision in which Romney could have handled this without creating some negative response from you?”
Boo-hoo….
And Oh, I listened to the entire speech Romney made at the NAACP, and of course HA was only interested in the boo’s and none of the approval that was being displayed.
Owebamma has completely wiped out my retirement. I will never vote for this Marxist idiot!
And the WaPo said the Obummer ad was worth 4 Pinocchios for the lies. That could be their highest rating.
Harry Poon is another headless lucy name, like dorky dorkman. You’ll see many appear and disappear, but I will identify them so you know.
And DUMMOCRAPTS don’t care for Black People. Watch what happens Wednesday November 7th during the final vote analysis.
“Owebamma has completely wiped out my retirement.”
Sucks to be you.
# 54: Gee, and I thought my 401(K) was doing poorly, being at the same level it was at two years ago! Of course, it took a much bigger beating during the George W. Bush administration, but came back considerably after President Obama’s handling of the economic crisis in 2009.
If your retirement was wiped out, you must have made some really bad choices in your investment options. Does your retirement planning include the lottery, or Vegas casinos?
Despite all these sideshows like the NAACP speech, the polls ain’t moving much. Here is a pretty good assessment of where we are at with other interesting commentary. Lots of people have made up their mind…period. Obama is in trouble because the undecideds will most likely break against him because of the Economy..not Romney and Bain or Romney’s income etc. For the undecideds, it will be pretty much about the economy (not the vulgar debate at HA.org!!)
Here’s the article-
http://www.realclearpolitics.c.....14775.html
All those dead Mavericks, Edsels and Pintos you parked in your back yard weren’t going to be worth much anyway.
Besides, you’re a liar.
re 60: Well, we at HA will continue to approach politics with our “vulgar debate” and you Republican nimnulls can mindlessly lurch toward Armageddon in lockstep.
How hard do you think it will be to remind the American public that the economy is the way it is because of 30 years of mindless free-market hegemony?
@62…lmfa..yep, blame reagan..lol…blame a guy who hasn’t been in office for nearly a quarter century…..
Face slap…..
@15,
Hey, it’s true. Minorities and poor whites are more likely to support a Democrat than a Republican or other party. You can’t deny that, Harry.
@64 The Republicans appear to be hoping that your statement won’t apply to the “poor whites” who still think that white sheets are meant for something besides sleeping on.
# 60: The undecideds can break either way, but they generally break within 5% +/- of the overall electorate (the 1980 election being a outlier). That still gives the President an advantage.
In addition, nationwide popular vote polling is somewhat irrelevant, in that the bulk of the Republican support is overwhelmingly concentrated within a regional block (south, midwest) with fewer electoral college votes combined than those regional blocks already in the Democratic camp. The electoral college map still looks good for the President’s re-election, the campaigning is already being concentrated into a handful of “swing” states where the President’s message is hitting home, like Ohio.