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Romney fails to connect with blacks, as planned
Mitt Romney might have started out Wednesday aiming to chip away at President Barack Obama's African American base, but ended up furthering himself more.
Mitt Romney might have started out Wednesday aiming to chip away at President Barack Obama's African American base, but ended up furthering himself more.
Romney was booed many times and the few applauses he got were put down to a team of sympathetic African Americans that he brought for support.
But if he had expected to connect, he failed. But if he had planned to not connect and emphasise a disconnect, as alleged by many African Americans, he succeeded.
He was booed roundly when he said he would withdraw most of the health care reform law - which he called Obamacare - if elected.
African American commentators were unanimously agreed in condemning Romney's use of the phrase Obamacare saying it was a pejorative deliberately used to make a point.
And that point was not for the audience in front but a majority of Republican voters who remain largely unconvinced about Romney's credentials.
The boos, which he had expected he later said in a TV interview, helped him cement his position as a true blue conservative, disliked by African Americans and liberals.
He may have even tried to convey to these and other voters in the Republican base that he was not out of touch with African American voters, and that he had some control over them.
"In this case, he has a chance of convincing moderate white Republicans that he can talk with (perhaps control) minority group leaders," said Lorenzo Morris, professor of political science at Howard University, about Romney's decision to accept NAACP's invitation.
Continuing recession has hit the African American community the hardest with unemployment rates crossing 14% against the nation average of 8.2%.
Romney did play that card, drawing applause from the band of sympathizers he brought to the convention, but failed to leverage it adequately with his pitch against Obamacare.
But hours after being booed, Romney looked not in the least bit perturbed. He had expected it, he said. And wanted it perhaps as the clinching proof of his credentials as a conservative.
