Today Democratic candidate John Kerry spoke at the NAACP's annual convention in Philadelphia, while George W. Bush became the first president since Hoover to decline invitations to the NAACP convention in every year of his presidency.   Bush did, however, speak to the convention while campaigning in 2000.

While the Bush administration originally claimed he would not be appearing this year due to a scheduling conflict, White House spokesman Scott McClellan now says that the real reason was "hostile political rhetoric about the president" from leaders in the NAACP.  While perhaps less media-friendly than the original excuse, this admission is significantly more plausible in light of the fact that Bush's scheduling did not prevent him from making his 30th campaigning visit to Pennsylvania just 2 days before the convention.   McClellan maintained that this will not hurt the administration's efforts to gain ground with African-American voters, and that "the president is going to reach out to everyone in the African-American community and ask for their vote based on his record and his vision for the country."
 
Given that Bush's record includes disenfranchisement of thousands of black voters in a national election, refusal to address racial profiling by state law enforcement while acting as Governor of Texas, and presiding over black unemployment rates twice as high as those for whites, using his record as a politician might not be the best angle for the Republicans to pursue.  Invoking his vision for the country does little better, since that vision is founded on belief in a God who endorses racism and slavery, and even forbids persons of mixed-racial heritage from entering places of worship. 
 
Small wonder that Bush's popularity among black voters landed him an abysmal 9% of their support in the last presidential election.  True, Republicans seldom land more than a 15% approval rating with blacks, but not since Barry Goldwater in 1964 has a Republican done quite as poorly as Bush.