HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- Bush jibe angers black
leaders
Matthew Engel in
Washington
Wednesday July 10, 2002 The Guardian Relations between the White House
and black American leaders slumped to a new low yesterday after President Bush
gave a dismissive answer when asked why he was not addressing the convention of
the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured Peoples, the most
respected black pressure group in the US.
At his press conference on Monday night, Mr Bush answered: "Let's see. There
I was sitting around the table with foreign leaders looking at Colin Powell and
Condi Rice _ " His voice then trailed away, he shook his head and moved on to
the next question; the implication being that two black people in his inner
circle was a substitute for outreach to the rest of the community.
His words were certain to cause outrage, and seemed an uncharacteristic piece
of political ineptitude.
"You can't be president of all the people when you only want to be president
for some of the people," said the NAACP chief executive, Kweisi Mfume.
Julian Bond, the NAACP chairman, said of Mr Bush: "We knew he was in the oil
business - we just didn't know it was snake oil."
Mr Bond said that groups opposed to civil rights now held "unprecedented
power" in the Bush administration.
A justice department spokeswoman, Barbara Comstock, said the speeches ignored
the administration's actual record.
The Houston Chronicle suggested that the snub had been deliberate: "In search
of a more receptive audience, Bush is taking his message of home ownership,
welfare reform and faith-based initiatives directly to the African-American
churches, service providers and others who may be more likely to embrace it."
The Chronicle reported that in a recent internal White House memo on
political strategy African-Americans were the only group listed under "areas for
improvement".
At the 2000 election, Mr Bush won just 9% of black votes, and there is
bitterness that without the effective disenfranchisement of many black voters in
Florida, Al Gore would be president.
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