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Wednesday, September 19, 2007
GOP front-runners ‘ignoring’ blacks?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican presidential candidates — the presumed front-runners at least — are making themselves scarce for a Sept. 27 debate, said to be “African-American oriented” and organized by talk show host Travis Smiley. It’s scheduled for Baltimore’s historically black Morgan State University and will be aired by PBS.
As of now, only U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and U.S. Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Ron Paul of Texas will participate. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee are sending regrets — much to the ire of Smiley and his fans.
“No one should be elected president of this country in 2008 if they ignore people of color,” said Smiley. “”If they want to be president of all America they need to speak to all Americans.”
Agreed.
The question remains, however, whether a failure to attend any single event, or to appear before any specific organization or interest group, amounts to “ignoring” a particular constituency. The correct answer is no.
Anybody who’s paid attention to the ongoing series of debates involving candidates of both parties recognizes that their views are getting fleshed out pretty thoroughly on the major issues facing the next president — issues equally important to all Americans.
This is, I suppose, a chicken-or-egg proposition. Republicans should reach out to black voters year-round — but that’s not the same as saying that they should embrace the Big Government views that attract most black voters to the Democratic Party. They do need, however, to be smarter and more aggressive and more consistent in selling conservative policies to Democrats of color. Eventually the single-digit support among blacks will grow.
