When I saw yesterday that Kerry was extending an invitation for Al Sharpton to speak at the DNC, the only reason I could think for this was:
In all seriousness, this probably means that the Democrats have some seriously troubling internal polling data regarding the African-American vote.
From the NY Times today:
For weeks, Senator John Kerry savored a Democratic Party that was unified in rallying behind his presidential candidacy. But in recent days, influential black and Hispanic political leaders whom the campaign had counted on for support have been openly complaining that Mr. Kerry’s organization lacks diversity and is failing to appeal directly to minority voters.
Even as Mr. Kerry spoke here on Thursday to the National Conference of Black Mayors – an appearance his community outreach team viewed as critical to building a network of minority support – two influential Latino leaders circulated harsh letters expressing concern about the campaign’s dealings with minorities.
And in interviews over the last week, more than a dozen minority elected officials and political strategists voiced concerns about what they said was the dearth of representation in Mr. Kerry’s inner circle and worried that he was taking black and Hispanic votes for granted.
“The reality is that we’re entering May and the Kerry campaign has no message out there to the Hispanic community nor has there been any inkling of any reach-out effort in any state to the Hispanic electorate, at least with any perceivable sustainable strategy in mind,” Alvaro Cifuentes, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s Hispanic Caucus, said in an e-mail message to party leaders provided by a recipient who insisted on anonymity. “It is no secret that the word of mouth in the Beltway and beyond is not that he does not get it, it is that he does not care.”
That is what I thought. The man can’t even rally his base.
Jon Henke
Well, so far the Kerry campaign seems to be playing the race card quite badly with the hispanic vote.
The Lonewacko Blog
Kerry has gladly accepted the endorsement of Antonio Villaraigosa, the former president of the UCLA chapter of MEChA. More on that chapter here and on the documents mentioned: El Plan de Aztlan and El Plan de Santa Barbara.
Kerry has divided people up into neat little categories, and assigned underlings to pander to them.
If you want to separate Kerry from the black voters, his stance on immigration would be a great place to start. He wants to give a general amnesty, which will encourage massive illegal immigration from those expecting to take part in that amnesty (and the next, and the next,…) That will have a devastating impact on low-wage U.S. citizens, many of whom are black.
Kerry also supports the DREAM Act, which would take discounted college educations away from U.S. citizens and give them to citizens of other countries. Many of those impacted by the DREAM Act would be Citizens Of Color.
CadillaqJaq
John Cole: “The man can’t even rally his base.”
No kidding… but he certainly energizes GWB’s base! I hope Kerry never changes.
Eric Lindholm
The conventional wisdom is that Sharpton essentially threatened the DNC to garner a speaking slot. He was prepapred to “speak in the parking lot” if he wasn’t given a slot, thus embarrassing the Dems.
Kimmitt
That sounds about right. Of course, the Right doesn’t have to worry about this sort of thing, since your psychotic nutjobs can say whatever they want with no media consequences whatsoever.