ROMNEY BOOED AT NAACP BUT OBAMA DOESN’T EVEN SHOW UP

Addressing a predominantly black audience for just the second time on the campaign trail, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Wednesday took his message to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), delivering a speech that was received with mixed response — including multiple instances of prolonged boos.

The candidate, whose remarks signaled a commitment to making inroads to black voters, stressed in his speech that he’s not “presuming” anyone’s support. Particularly emphasizing his commitment to improving America’s education system, the former Massachusetts governor outlined a five-point plan for growing the economy and creating jobs.

As he usually does in such speeches, Romney underscored his commitment to repealing Mr. Obama’s health care plan as part of his strategy to turn the economy around.

To create jobs, he said, “I am going to eliminate every non-essential expensive program I can find. That includes Obamacare.” His comments were met with extended boos from the audience.

He was also booed when he told the largely black audience that “if you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him.”

Mr. Obama passed up the chance to address the group, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and sent Vice President Joe Biden Jr. instead.

While blacks are expected to solidly back Obama again this year, he faces challenges in generating the same enthusiasm as in 2008. The level of black turnout could be especially crucial in states like North Carolina and Virginia, where black voters had an outsize influence in the president’s relatively narrow victories four years ago.

“In 2008, he won North Carolina by about 14,000 votes,” said Bill Randall, a black Republican who lost a recent primary for a Congressional seat in the state. But “support is waning” he said, adding that the president’s “policies are not doing things that are going to spur economic growth.”
Other black leaders said Romney would need more than an economic message to improve on Senator John McCain’s dismal level of black support in 2008 and return to the 11 percent that George W. Bush won in 2004, according to exit polls.

It might appear that Obama is taking black voters for granted by skipping the N.A.A.C.P. event, which he attended four years ago. Mr. Jealous said the president had signaled as recently as a week ago that he would speak to the group, but his office said he had a scheduling conflict. Biden, who also enjoys strong support among blacks, will speak on Thursday.

Obama is focused this week on countering a disappointing jobs report released last Friday — proposing on Monday to extend a middle-class tax cut, a message he planned to repeat Tuesday at grass-roots events in Iowa.

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