I agree with Clarence
Page, not Thomas. Just wanted to see if you're paying attention.
Quote of note:
Perhaps Bush became more outspoken in his NAACP critique because he knew Education Secretary Rod Paige, a black "lifelong" NAACP member, was about to spring his own stinging critique of the NAACP in The Wall Street Journal's editorial page last Thursday, the same day that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Bush's Democratic opponent, addressed the group.
NAACP vs. GOP: Preaching to the choir
Published July 18, 2004
WASHINGTON -- Leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sounded outraged that President Bush stiffed their invitation to speak at their annual convention, which runs through Thursday in Philadelphia. But I am guessing that they were secretly delighted. After all, as long as Bush didn't show, they didn't have to pretend that they wanted to hear him.
That's just one of several good reasons why the president should have shown up. Politically, it was a no-lose proposition for him in an election year. If the delegates had applauded politely, which they did after his 2000 speech before the body, he would have looked like a winner. If anybody had jeered, which was highly unlikely, he would have looked courageous for making an attempt at peacemaking.
Instead, the president flip-flopped on his 2000 pledge to be "a uniter, not a divider" by slamming the leaders of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group. In an interview with three Pennsylvania newspapers, Bush said he "admired some" NAACP leaders around the country but not its officers, who include President Kweisi Mfume, a former Democratic congressman from Baltimore, and Chairman Julian Bond, who has denounced Bush's judicial appointees as coming from "the Taliban wing" of the GOP.
