In 2004, then-Governor George W. Bush won 11 percent of the African-American vote.
In 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama received support from 95 percent of the Black community.
Today, Governor Mitt Romney will make his pitch to African-Americans before the annual convention of the NAACP in Houston. It's not the first time he’s made such an overture; the Romney camp recently hired an adviser to help guide it's outreach to the Black community, and the Governor has held a number of events in predominantly Black neighborhoods.
But as this morning's New York Times reports, Romney's interest in addressing the NAACP today may have less to do with attracting the Black vote (which has skewed heavily toward Democrats in modern elections) and more with appearing moderate to independent and undecided White voters. Support in those demographics could provide a boost to the presumptive Republican nominee, as would weaker African-American turnout in 2012 as compared with 2008.
We'll have the best moments - and the best analysis - of Romney's speech when we come on the air at noon ET on NOW. In the meantime, let us know you'd like to hear Mitt Romney say before the crowd in Houston today.
PANEL
David Corn, Mother Jones/MSNBC Political Analyst (@davidcorndc)
Michael Eric Dyson, Georgetown U./MSNBC Political Analyst (@michaeledyson)
Joy-Ann Reid, Managing Editor, TheGrio.com/MSNBC Contributor (@thereidreport)
Hugo Lindgren, Editor, The New York Times Magazine (@hugolindgren)
GUESTS
Fredrick Harris, Columbia U./Author, “The Price of the Ticket: Barack Obama and the Rise and Decline of Black Politics”
BULLPEN
Lawrence O’Donnell (@lawrence)
Leave a Comment:
Aaex...if the republicans and Romney are so interested in the black and hispanic votes...why are they doing voter surpression in this area in every state where there is a rep. governor ..how does that help Romney.
President Obama does more for the middle and lower class students than anyone else ever could.
President Obama has done more for middle and lower class African American student in giving them hope than anyone else could have done in 50 years!
I was personally hoping for more lolz from Mitt at that event..the organ joke is classic him tho. By his notion a botched funeral would be going well if the organ music sounded nice.
Aside of that, I give him some points for effort. And, some of what he said there (such as Obama maybe taking black votes for granted) may have *some* truth to it. Overall however he's doing something like this a bit too little, too late and with the added sting it's coming off as some tactic for political gain. In the end 'black' problems aren't vastly different than other people's problems. Just be honest with who you are, Mitt...
..But therein sort of lies a problem. No matter race or creed there are some questionable stances and actions about Mitt that aren't very good.
The real question why didn’t Obama attend the NAACP meeting? It is pure politics in its most cynical form. The first African American President who is now seeking reelection has a "scheduling conflict" that prevent him from speaking before the oldest and most revered group that has (righteously) fought for civil liberties. At lease Romney had the guts to go.
my question is very simple. every news station, both local and cable, always give factcheck.org credibility on fact checking. Yet The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, which is very known for being one sided conservative Republican politically controlled is in charge of the Factcheck.org which many, if not all news stations, are using factcheck.org for their fact checking. REALLY? DO YOUR OWN DAMN FACT CHECKING. I miss the days when news reporters did their OWN digging for the truth.
July 12, 2012
Today, I forced myself to listen to Biden's 30 minute speech on c-span, at the NAACP, before listening to your assessment of it--with only half of your panel: sorry, but not as honest as you have been other times...a] his reception was VERY moderate, with scattered applause by a small portion of the audience[don't know what your friend Capehart has been offered by Obama's administration, but his contibution to this discussion was as phony as a psychophant's]; b]Biden, clearly concerned about the flat response to him[because of their fearless leader's conspicuous absence and Mr Biden's, for several YEARS now], began to yell out lines in order to excite the intelligent, unexcitable[by now]crowd, even, in true desperation, trying to use Robert Bork's defamed name[thanks to Biden's disgustingly wicked and dishonest performance at Bork's hearings]; c]ONLY ONCE, did this unmitigated fool mention jobs, in his pitiful, phony performance, and that was not about any job plan for Afro-Americans, but about the spurious claim that Obama "created 200,000 jobs at General Motors"in the last four years...I thought that figure was supposed to be closer to 20,000 jobs, but I will trust you to verify that fact...what I do know, is that 75% of these jobs WENT TO CHINA !!!
Please try to re-visit this speech[I have to wonder if you even listened to it] and supply us with a more intellectually honest analysis...
Traditional: I couldn't bring myself to watch or listen to Biden even though I have always found him to be an interesting - if not misguided - pol. It us absolutely mind-blowing that Obama couldn't find the time to attend the NAACP. It shows exactly what so many of these sycophants can't see or won't even entertain: that Obama is nothing more than another politician who happens to have the gift of giving great speeches. Bottom line: Obama didn't want to appear as "too black" as to turn off independent voters. Someone tell me I'm wrong and why. I guarantee you Axelrod was behind it.
Now, I heard that the Obama campaign is calling Romney either a felon or liar about when he left Bain and the liberal press is gong crazy over it.
I'm no die-hard R. I have voted for both Republican and Democrat tickets.
All I want is to hear an honest debate on the two competing philosophies that the respective candidates claim will pull us from the quickly approaching financial meltdown, which even more bullish business analysts are predicting.
I believe it is time to bring in the Independent Party candidates.