Who Let the Dogs Out? Romney at the NAACP
Today, Republican Presidential Nominee Mitt Romney will be addressing the 103rd National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Convention in Houston, TX.
No. Really, he will be. Unless he gets a cold at the last second or maybe the family dog gets sick from the ride over – he will be speaking at the convention that has the theme “This is my power. This is my decision. This is my vote.”
The likelihood that any of the people in the convention hall will be using their power, decisions or vote for Romney is highly doubtful.
Currently President Obama is polling at 87% among African American voters, and with undecideds historically around 6% – it’s not looking too good for Romney.
Of course those numbers are not without good reason. Mitt’s inability to connect with African Americans can only be compared to his connection to the poor… it’s just not happening. One only has to look to this video to see why. When he asked a dozen or so young black kids, “Who? Who let the dogs out?”
We can hope that the seminal track by the Baja Boys will not be his intro music, dbut for someone so famously out of touch I wouldn’t be surprised if he came out on stage singing it like Obama belting “I’m so in love with you.”
But in all seriousness – speeches like this by Presidential nominees get a lot of attention – they are places that plans can be laid out, and misunderstandings can be smoothed out.
Romney has a lot of smoothing to do.
From his white supremacist adviser (co-author of SB1070) Kris Kobach, his clowning around with Head Birther Donald Trump, to his adamant support of voter disenfranchisement laws such as voter ID – he’ll need A LOT of ironing.
While I don’t think that he can win that many voters over today, even with one good speech, he can separate himself from the people he keeps around.
Imagine something like this…
“[W]hile our communication should always deal with current issues of importance, it must never stray far from our national commitment to battle against discrimination and increase our knowledge of each other.
A few isolated groups in the backwater of American life still hold perverted notions of what America is all about. Recently in some places in the nation there’s been a disturbing reoccurrence of bigotry and violence. If I may, from the platform of this organization known for its tolerance, I would like to address a few remarks to those groups who still adhere to senseless racism and religious prejudice, to those individuals who persist in such hateful behavior.
If I were speaking to them instead of to you, I would say to them, “You are the ones who are out of step with our society. You are the ones who willfully violate the meaning of the dream that is America. And this country, because of what it stands for, will not stand for your conduct.” My administration will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who, by violence or intimidation, would attempt to deny Americans their constitutional rights.”
I’d like to see the response he gets from his friends at Fox, in Arizona, and in Trump Towers if he said those words to the NAACP tomorrow – the same words that their hero, Ronald Reagan said 31 years ago to the same group.
If you don’t believe me… here’s the video.
[yes, I cheated a bit and reused this video from a previous story I wrote about Sarah Palin for The Mudflats, but you know, when you’ve got something good… you’ve got to use it as much as possible. ]
Zach D Roberts is TheMudflats New York Bureau Chief and Greg Palast’s producer and researcher. He will be moving to Alaska very soon, he really promises.
Can I say horses have joined dogs against Romney I guess for dressage animal abuse ? http://www.dogsagainstromney.com/2012/06/romneys-appalling-record-of-animal.html
but on the very bright side London’s official olympic music video is AWESOME even if dressage may be sometimes abusive Check It Out !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66molzUEkWI&feature=share
If you’d like to see the court papers:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/ann-romneys-high-horse
Can I say horses have joined dogs against Romney I guess for dressage animal abuse ?
http://www.dogsagainstromney.com/2012/06/romneys-appalling-record-of-animal.html
but on the very bright side London’s official olympic music video is AWESOME even if dressage may be sometimes abusive Check It Out !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66molzUEkWI&feature=share
Can I say horses have joined dogs against Romney I guess for dressage animal abuse ?http://www.dogsagainstromney.com/2012/06/romneys-appalling-record-of-animal.html
but on the very bright side London’s official olympic music video is AWESOME even if dressage may be sometimes abusive Check It Out !!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66molzUEkWI&feature=share
I am sure that I am not the only one who gets “robo” calls, but today I got one that went over the cliff!
When I answered my phone, I heard loud alarm sounds like you hear on TV just before an emergency broadcast.
Then a man comes on and is Screaming—” This is an alert” , “This is an alert”, “This is a terrorist alert”
Then he says the Terrorist name is —-and gives a name I can not pronouce or spell.
Then he says–He is also known as B. Obama.
This is when I hung up and decided to phone Windstream—–( our telephone provider)
They tell me that they can not do anything about it. But I tell them that this call has crossed the line by using emergency broadcast sounds.
She tells me I can report this to PUC commission. However, I decided to call our Iowa Atty Gen. Tom Miller.
So far, they have not returned my call.
I hope I can get them shut down.
The number that this call came from is
#202 600 2636
I tried to call this number, but was told that it is not in service.
If anyone knows how to shut them down, I would like to know how to do this.
One thing notable, of the roughly 22 million african americans eligible to vote I saw a figure today that claimed as many as 8 million of them don’t vote at all. Assuming their preference for Obama would be the same as those who do vote that would mean 6.96 million additional votes in the up-coming election. That is about the average voter turnout in national elections for president across all demographics. (~63%)
This is one of the things that ACORN worked actively to change and enjoyed some success with, which is why it was so astonishing that in lockstep with the right wing virtually the entire congress violated the constitution and voted to disenfranchise ACORN based on what ultimately was shown to be a totally fabricated accusation that was never tested at all.
Obama has been dealing with racism all his life, he seems to be very accomplished at it. If he were to directly address the NAACP he would of course be accused of pandering to black bigotry and hatred of whites etc. etc. So instead he gives the stage to O’Biden who just happens to be a lifetime member of the NAACP and who, of course, by all accounts I have seen, delivered a slam-dunk speech that had the whole room standing and cheering.
I have seen speculation as well that the reason Romney addressed the convention was simply to obtain some film footage to use in his later campaign to provoke the right wing racist base. That may very well be true, he came close to saying so within hours in a Fox interview. “-of course we expected that” I believe is the phrase he used. Saddly for him, I don’t think he will be able to create more racists with that kind of propaganda. We’ll see how they twist it.
On the other hand,, the independents, who may have a social conscience, might be sorely put off by such bald attempts to manipulate and propagandize a dog whistle issue – if I were one, I know I would be.
GOTV
As you point out, Romney may be building the case to win with these vacuous attempts to collect footage in front of key groups. Unfortunately, Romney is not building the case to govern. What happens 6 months to one year into a Romney presidency when the economy is getting worse, job growth remains miniscule or declines, food cost has massively inflated due to the nationwide drought, gasoline goes over $4 a gallon, we have no health care and none on the horizon, and the republicans are picking fights with Syria and Iran ? If we add no jobs, homelessness, foreclosures, food shortages, no health care, and war to our national condition, all accompanied by political denial, what do you think is going to happen? I think Romney and the Republicans will choose war as their economic stimulus package.
I posted a couple of tidbits on rMoney today at the Forum (SO glad the maintenance is over!): the first is on the felony he may have committed if he misrepresented his tenure at Bain. The second is how he wishes to return our military to the Cheney era (yes, you read that right).
It is amusing using Ronald Reagan as an example to show how out of touch the New Conservative
party is.
Citation for misuse of apostrophe. Two offenses:
“Who Let the Dog’s Out?”
“the family dog get’s sick”
$20 penalty. See the cashier on your way out.
Gah! As the editor, I take some of the blame… At least it’s not a mandatory jail sentence. 🙂
I heard somewhere that using smiley faces in the comments is lame.
No fine for lameness, though.
AKM, you do so much good! Thank you for editing, writing, reporting, going to court… you name it! 🙂
Must be my imagination because I thought I overheard a bunch of rethugs claiming 87% of Black voters have been officially disenfranchised by rethug guvs. A dead Rick Scott got to vote in Florida a while back.
His audience booed loudly at Romney’s pledge to repeal Obamacare, but clapped at his defense of traditional marriage.
Of course, CNN criticized Obama for not attending, sending Biden instead. Stupid FOX Lite station.
He’s such a maroon. WTF was he thinking? omg hahahahahaha,
Actually this was a fairly smart move (or perhaps I’m paranoid). He wasn’t there to connect or to show anyone why he would be the better candidate for ALL. He was there to feed the Rush crowd, the message Rush is spouting is Myth was booed because of his color and because he was taking free things away from anyone the right assumes is on welfare or wants to be – reinforcing their mindset. He can recount to his wealthy white supporters (as he bravely wipes a tear, bites his lip and inhales sharply) that he went because his heart is pure and they rejected him…well they blew it – when he gets elected he won’t be helping them!
Cynical? Perhaps I am but this isn’t about ideas, not about leadership its all about money and for the last 20 years the GOP has been undermining our demoracy while wrapping themselves in the flag and carrying a Bible — remind you of any prediction about tyranny? As they viewed the majority of voters in their camp decreasing – they realized they had the money advantage and could put their own in power and craft the laws to make sure minorities could not get actual power. During W’s administration they got a lot done because the second anyone disagreed on anything they pronounced them a traitor, we are at war. They had to know they would lose after W — so they have villified and attacked the PERSON and the OFFICE – just as they did to Clinton. I was so angry with him for playing into their hands (so-to-speak) and giving them a valid sin. They are trying now (Fast & Furious anyone?) but currently are coming up with nothing that sticks (much like Whitewater or Travelgate) but they’ll keep trying.
Romney isn’t really expected to win — but what will derail GOP (for a while) is to vote in as many Dems as possible in state and federal elections — don’t let state legislatures limit voters and voting in good Dems who want to help the President & the nation and voting out the worthless GOP Congress. Then repeat in 2016, 2020 and beyond until the GOP are as important as the Whigs and a historical note only.