July 12, 2007
Obama, Tancredo (?!) Turn Heads At NAACP Convention
Nine presidential candidates addressed the NAACP's annual conference today in Detroit -- eight Democrats and a lone Republican, immigration enforcer Tom Tancredo, congressman from Colorado.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., roused the crowd by juxtaposing President Bush's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby with the 10-year prison sentence handed to Georgia's Genarlow Wilson, a young black man convicted of child molestation at age 17 after having consensual sex at a party. "We know we have more work to do when Scooter Libby gets no prison time and a 21-year-old honor student, who hadn't even committed a felony, gets 10 years in prison," he said.
By all accounts, Obama received the loudest response, but his Democratic rivals were received warmly as well, particularly Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. Even Tancredo received a standing ovation, but according to the Detroit Free Press, that was "more because he was the only Republican to show up, rather than approving of his stance on issues."
As if to highlight the fact that all 10 Republican presidential candidates had been invited, conference organizers set up 10 lecterns for the GOP contingent, leaving Tancredo standing alone among nine vacant lecterns. "This is my kind of debate," he joked. His address to the conference focused on his pet issue, illegal immigration, and its effect on job opportunities and wages for blacks.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani declined to show up even though he planned to appear tonight in nearby Oakland County. Needless to say, this did not sit well with some NAACP members.
The Bush administration did not go entirely unrepresented at the conference. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff showed up last night and emphasized the importance of maintaining civil rights for American Muslims.
But the NAACP's claims to nonpartisanship were rather undercut by the organization's president, Julian Bond. In his opening address on July 8, Bond referred to Republicans as "the other side," hailed the ascendancy of the Democrats in Congress, slammed the "Bush Court" for its recent school desegregation ruling, and called Bush's response to Katrina "a gumbo of inaction, insensitivity and incompetence."
USA Today, AP and MSNBC have more on the conference.
Posted at 5:40 PM
Posted to:
Barack Obama, Campaigns, Democrats, Race, Republicans, Tom Tancredo, WH 2008
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