This, from Laurence McQuillan's column in USA Today, concerning the president's trip to Africa: "But Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., head of the Congressional Black Caucus, says Bush's five-day trip won't fool black voters into thinking he cares about their concerns." Oh, no: One must never imagine that this Republican president could ever care about black people!
More from that column: "[Jeremy] Mayer, a political science professor at Georgetown University, says Bush won't reach black voters merely through his travels. 'The idea that African-Americans are strongly connected to Africa and its politics is simply wrong. ...'" If that's the case, might we not want to reconsider this newish, troublesome designation "African-American"? Don't we have enough hyphens in this country already?
| What the National Review's Jay Nordlinger had to say in his latest Impromptus column, "Are you partisan? Heaven at Ronnie’s. Rebels against race — and more"
[...] Jeremy Mayer, author of Running On Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Campaigns, says the White House plan "is to appeal to two groups in the black community, wealthy blacks and very religious blacks, and try to peel them away." [...]
[...] But Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., head of the Congressional Black Caucus, says Bush's five-day trip won't fool black voters into thinking he cares about their concerns. With unemployment among blacks approaching 12%, Cummings says, "I don't know how much photo ops do for you. They don't feed anybody, and they don't provide food and shelter."
Mayer, a political science professor at Georgetown University, says Bush won't reach black voters merely through his travels. "The idea that African-Americans are strongly connected to Africa and its politics is simply wrong," he says. "There is no comparison between the connection that Jews feel to Israel ... and the connection between blacks and Africa."
But the themes of Bush's trip appeal to other important voting blocs as well a blacks. Evangelical Christians, a key element of Bush's political base, are active in the fight against AIDS in Africa. Expansion of trade appeals to business interests and moderates.
"The motivation for reaching out is really about white swing voters, especially white suburbanites outside of the South," says David Bositis, a political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington, D.C.
| From a slightly fuller accounting of Laurence McQuillan's USA Today article "Strategists hope Africa trip boosts Bush's standing with black voters"
posted in articles on July 15, 2003 8:40 PM | t (0)
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