OBAMA SNUBS NAACP

I don't know which is sicker:

Romney speaking at the NAACP in order to get booed to gin up his racist base? (He also flew in a bunch of black Republicans and met with them only--not with rank and file NAACP members.) He hasn't got much to lose--less 5% of blacks support him.

Or Obama cancelling on the convention--the first president of color cancelling on the high profile convention before an election year? He had confirmed, was pictured in the program, etc. But he sent a video message and Biden instead, cancelling due to scheduling conflicts. Yet the only thing on his schedule that day was a 9:45AM daily briefing, so where was the conflict? Was he afraid that he might get booed also? In the recession, people of color have done far worse. This interesting article points out some possible causes of the snub--from a spat between the first lady's office to Obama's fear of Republicans using his speech to rile racist Republicans. I think the explanation is that even though he's done little for blacks, he takes their vote for granted. The exact same thing he's done with liberals!

FROM BUZZFEED: Alvin Chambliss, a retired law professor at Texas Southern University and lifelong members of the NAACP, blamed Obama's advisers — particularly Valerie Jarrett — for his decision not to show up, echoing a common complaint here about the people in the president's inner circle. Chambliss, who called the president's absence "a downer," said Jarrett is too afraid of Obama becoming defined by his race, and has led him to take his African-American supporters for granted.

"I don't think there's anyone around the president who's really, truly from the black community," Chambliss said. "We have to re-elect him, but I pray that his second term will be different from his first term."
Chambliss went on to say he "long[ed] for the day when the NAACP will be an organization where every president, whether Republican or Democrat, would come because there would be punitive damages for not coming. But today is obviously not that day."

"We can give him a pass," Chambliss concluded. "But to say it was a scheduling conflict, that's bull. At the end of the day, it's the NAACP; you schedule stuff around them. You're supposed to know when there's a convention, and you're supposed to come."

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