Bush's latest PR disaster...
| By Alan Franklin - Jul 17th, 2004 at 2:00 am EDT |
...is his fascinating, seemingly intentional, suicidal alienation of the NAACP.
In the LA Times:
Why on earth not? Bush's decision to boycott the NAACP is inexplicable as a matter of presidential leadership. And it is just as inexplicable as a matter of low, self-interested politics. We would accuse him of ulterior motives, but it is hard to think of any.
Middle AmericaýAdrian, MI:
Bush is the first president not to speak to the NAACP convention since the 1930s. Why would Bush go out of his way to alienate black voters, just months before the election? Even if Bush is correct, and the NAACP has treated him badly, he's supposed to work to unite Americans, not hold his breath until every sector of the American public blindly falls in line.
Make no mistake, this poorly thought out move is changing the whole debateýand chipping away at the perilous balance behind Mike Littwin's sense of polarization in America today:
Julian Bond, the N.A.A.C.P. chairman, said the Republicans' "idea of equal rights is the American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side."
Mr. Bond repeated the criticism in a speech on Sunday, saying Republicans "preach racial neutrality and practice racial division.''
Either way, there's pretty much no outcome here that doesn't cost `em big...
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