NAACP Misses Major Opportunity With Mitt Romney - Huffington Post

Mike Green: NAACP Misses Major Opportunity With Mitt Romney HPFB.init();
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Mike GreenAward-winning journalist; Public Speaker on Black Education & Innovation

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A chorus of boos reverberated among the crowd in Houston, Texas at the NAACP convention on July 11 in response to Mitt Romney's public pledge to repeal the new healthcare law, which the Republican presidential candidate referred to as "Obamacare."

Despite the display of discontent, it wasn't Mitt Romney who missed the mark at the NAACP convention, it was the NAACP.

Consider the setting for the meeting of two presumed diametrically opposed political perspectives:

Romney stood in front of a photo setting backdrop of flags on an elevated stage spotlighted behind a transparent podium branded with the logo of the NAACP. He looked down upon a crowd of mostly Black Americans while delivering a 20-minute canned speech that included a divisive term deliberately designed to incite the crowd.

My question is simply, why?

Mitt's Message

I don't wonder why Romney intentionally dropped the term "Obamacare," a political misnomer that has become the nasty mud-slinging calling card of the GOP in its effort to brand the new healthcare law as the linchpin of an aggressive attack upon the president -- as though he alone were responsible for the decisions of the majority of representatives in both houses of congress, the majority of the American people and the Supreme Court.

I naively expected Romney to show common courtesy and respect of the president in a room filled with presumed core constituents, but I wasn't surprised at the inflammatory rhetoric from a candidate who views President Obama as an enemy on a battlefield of influence. Romney didn't come to the NAACP convention to speak to the NAACP. He was there to leverage the moment to speak to his own core supporters -- those who coined the derogatory term, "Obamacare," and sharpened the rhetoric Romney was happy to launch into the crowd. Romney didn't disappoint them.

But I was disappointed by the NAACP.

NAACP Faux Pas

Inviting Mitt Romney to the convention was the right thing to do. Standing him above the crowd, bathed in bright spotlights beneath which he was free to deliver 20+ minutes of a scorched brand of vague milquetoast political promises, was unconscionable.

Instead, the NAACP should've invited Romney to give a five-minute speech followed by a chat with the NAACP president, Ben Jealous. Both should've been on stage. Romney should have had no script and no 20-minute dish-and-dash opportunity.

Mr. Jealous might've been equipped with a set of questions, most of which could've been curated from a crowdsourcing tool on the NAACP website that invited questions from its members nationwide. Mr. Jealous would've asked each selected question and one followup based upon Romney's responses.

The NAACP might've scheduled Romney for a 30-minute live online engagement following his stage appearance in order that hundreds of thousands of online users might've participated in a Q&A following the live broadcast of Romney's convention appearance.

The setup would've empowered the NAACP to have a real engagement with the real presidential candidate. If he had refused the invitation based upon the setup, Mr. Romney would've faced the PR nightmare of dodging accusations that he was unwilling to have a real discussion with NAACP members, preferring only a bully pulpit.

Questions for Mitt Romney

In a discussion setting, the NAACP could've asked questions that no media have asked Mitt Romney:

Mr. Romney, you proclaim your policies as president would be better for Black Americans than those under President Obama. Would your record as governor of Massachusetts support that premise and could you provide data on the education and economic welfare of Black Americans in your state that supports your premise?

Mr. Romney, you promise to provide low-income parents a choice of where to send their children to school. But what have you done -- not going to do -- to ensure all public schools are effective in preparing all students, regardless of income, for a 21st century marketplace dominated by a demand for science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM-educated, workers and entrepreneurs?

Mr. Romney, your background is in venture capital, which is a major part of a relatively new risk capital industry that claims responsibility for rapid job growth and has ballooned since its inception in the 60s when Black Americans were still fighting for Civil Rights. The risk capital industry, which has incorporated public pension funds into investments in hundreds of thousands of companies, is an industry in which the percentage of Black Americans, lumped in with Latino Americans in the latest National Venture Capital Census, is less than 2 percent, as is the spectrum of companies into which more than a half-trillion dollars has been invested over the past several decades. What have you done to ensure non-Whites are included in the innovation economy as entrepreneurs with access to risk capital and as risk capital investors?

Mr. Romney, let's talk about something you know a lot about, job growth and wealth creation. In 2007, there were 1.9 million Black-owned businesses in the U.S. that produced $137.5B in revenue, which amounts to LESS than 1% of the $14T GDP of the nation. More than 1.8 million of those 1.9 million businesses were sole proprietors. That was before the economic collapse that started in late 2007 and escalated through 2008. Were you aware of the extreme disconnection of Black entrepreneurs from the venture-fueled fast-paced tech-driven innovation economy? What have you done to address this issue in the past and what will you do about it regardless of whether you become president?

I'm saddened by the NAACP's missed opportunity to engage in a real discussion and debate with Mr. Romney. My hope is the NAACP is interested in engaging in such an ongoing discussion with both Republican and Democratic parties and will produce a stage for debate in the very near future to discuss these and other extremely important issues.

And I'm hopeful the NAACP will invite me to moderate and ask the questions that no one else has thought to ask.

 

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of our newest badge: Community Curator. View AllFavorites Recency |  Popularity HUFFPOST SUPER USERJondrea Smithuntied dog in a dogmatic society307 Fans 19 minutes ago ( 1:48 PM)I agree that there should have been a more intellectual discussion, but given the Mr. Romney's willingness and ability to answer such discussion effectively, it would've been much like me arm-wrestling a three-year-old...Jondrea_Smith: I agree that there should have been a more intellectualhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Jondrea_Smith/naacp-mitt-romney-missed-opportunity_b_1670705_169241870.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation. Loading comments… HUFFPOST SUPER USERGiglawyerI'm a conservative, and you may not like that.364 Fans 54 minutes ago ( 1:13 PM)I suer will be interested to see you ask those same questions of Obama when he sits down with the NAACP for his chit-chat. Oh, wait...Giglawyer: I suer will be interested to see you ask thosehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Giglawyer/naacp-mitt-romney-missed-opportunity_b_1670705_169228705.htmlHistory |Permalink |Share itThis comment has been down-ranked into oblivion. View comment You have not right to carry out this operation or Error this operation. Loading comments…    new comment(s) on this entry — Click to refreshLoading comments… California Strong Obama 55 electoral votes Connecticut Strong Obama 7 electoral votes Washington, D.C. Strong Obama 3 electoral votes Delaware Strong Obama 3 electoral votes Hawaii Strong Obama 4 electoral votes Illinois Strong Obama 20 electoral votes Massachusetts Strong Obama 11 electoral votes Maryland Strong Obama 10 electoral votes Maine Strong Obama 4 electoral votes Minnesota Strong Obama 10 electoral votes New Jersey Strong Obama 14 electoral votes New Mexico Strong Obama 5 electoral votes New York Strong Obama 29 electoral votes Oregon Strong Obama 7 electoral votes Pennsylvania Strong Obama 20 electoral votes Rhode Island Strong Obama 4 electoral votes Vermont Strong Obama 3 electoral votes Washington Strong Obama 12 electoral votes Colorado Leans Obama 9 electoral votes Iowa Leans Obama 6 electoral votes New Hampshire Leans Obama 4 electoral votes Nevada Leans Obama 6 electoral votes Ohio Leans Obama 18 electoral votes Wisconsin Leans Obama 10 electoral votes Florida Tossup 29 electoral votes Michigan Tossup 16 electoral votes North Carolina Tossup 15 electoral votes Virginia Tossup 13 electoral votes Missouri Leans Romney 10 electoral votes Alaska Strong Romney 3 electoral votes Alabama Strong Romney 9 electoral votes Arkansas Strong Romney 6 electoral votes Arizona Strong Romney 11 electoral votes Georgia Strong Romney 16 electoral votes Idaho Strong Romney 4 electoral votes Indiana Strong Romney 11 electoral votes Kansas Strong Romney 6 electoral votes Kentucky Strong Romney 8 electoral votes Louisiana Strong Romney 8 electoral votes Mississippi Strong Romney 6 electoral votes Montana Strong Romney 3 electoral votes North Dakota Strong Romney 3 electoral votes Nebraska Strong Romney 5 electoral votes Oklahoma Strong Romney 7 electoral votes South Carolina Strong Romney 9 electoral votes South Dakota Strong Romney 3 electoral votes Tennessee Strong Romney 11 electoral votes Texas Strong Romney 38 electoral votes Utah Strong Romney 6 electoral votes West Virginia Strong Romney 5 electoral votes Wyoming Strong Romney 3 electoral votes Electoral Outlook 2012 Based on HuffPost Pollster charts and analysis Romney 191 Electoral Votes Obama 274 Electoral Votes Election Map TOP VIDEO PICKS1 of 7 You've Got Jimmie Walker You've Got Sherri Shepherd Huffington Post Sports: Jerry Rice Interview FOLLOW US Connect with your friends Check out stories you might like,
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