I would have been more impressed if he had just refused to go. It's not like any of them are going to vote for him, so why grant legitimacy to the false notion that they are open to reasoned persuasion?
As you all know I am no fan of Mitt Romney. I accept that he is the nominee and I will vote for him but I'm not enthusiastic about him as the nominee.
But...
If he does more stuff like this I might change my mind and become slightly enthusiastic.
The safe thing to do would, in fact, have been to not go. And, throwing caution to the wind and going anyway, the safe thing to do then would have been to steer clear of the obvious trouble areas like DumbassCare. Even safer than that (if he was going to talk to the professional race whores) would have been to pander. Because that's what they expect...to be pandered to. They have always been pandered to. It is a rare thing indeed for someone to introduce reality to an NAACP convention.
Romney, not being known for stupidity, knew what he was getting into. He knew damned good and well who he would be addressing, what their sacred cows were and what would and would not piss them off. So why did he do this?
One reason has to be that, for Romney, this is where the votes are. He is going to have a lot of demographics locked up. I won't name them because I think we all know which ones they are. But the black demographic is one he isn't going to win. But he could peel off a percentage point or two. That is possible. So...why not try?
The fact of the matter is you have to ask for people's votes. You shouldn't assume that they are going to just give them to you. This is a fundamental principle in "sales." And a presidential campaign is, reduced to its lowest common denominator, a sales pitch. You will close few if any sales if you neglect to ask for the sale. It costs you nothing to ask and more often than you would think people will say, "yes." But if you don't at least ask for it a very large number of fence sitters will assume you don't want their business and shop elsewhere or not at all. So I think that this was a good reason to make this speech at this venue. I think he should do it again and again and again. This is O'Bongo's turf and it's smart to spend a little time poaching on it.
Another reason to do this is that it demonstrates to the idiots that he is not afraid of blacks, that he is not a racist, that he can give a speech to a black audience. Who are the idiots? The much vaunted independents. The obnoxious moderates. The David Brooks and David Frum's of the world. The squishes. The people who typically get their news from pop culture. If Romney had not done this they could have said to themselves (because that's mainly who they talk to) that Romney is a hater. That he doesn't care about the black community. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But now that easy out is closed to them. They can't say that Romney can not and will not talk to the black community. That spoils their day, takes that non-issue away from them and might cause a few of them to give Romney the benefit of the doubt in November.
Think of this also as a sort of "Sister Soulja" moment where Romney could have pandered but didn't. He went in there and told the NAACP what reality is. This actually impresses a lot of people on the right that he has guts and nerve. I admit, I'm one of them. If he hadn't gone at all I probably would have (if I had even heard that he hadn't gone) thought that it was smart and that's where I would have left it. But because he did go and because he did have the balls to tell the idiots what the truth is, well, it made the news...so I did hear about it and I did have the opportunity to have my opinion about him changed slightly for the better. This shores up the base and that's a good thing.
Now, imagine (if you can) any comparable speech that O'Bongo could make like this one. I honestly can't. I don't see how there could be any kind of a comparative situation for a leftist...anything that would have any kind of ring of truth to it, that is. I mean, I guess O'Bongo could have shown up at the NRA convention and "spoken truth to power" about gun violence or some other such bit of liberal nonsense but it would have been just that, nonsense. Liberals can't speak truthfully about what is in their heart of hearts because it's contrary to freedom and liberty and it's almost always antipathetic to reality. Conservatives (or those faking it) can say these things to anyone, even the Marxists at the NAACP, because the arguments hold up, they pass muster. It only takes the courage to speak them. And Romney for whatever reason decided to do this.
So, I'm impressed, I'm pleasantly surprised and I'm perfectly willing to give credit and kudos where it's due.
And it is due. More, please.
