Ray Malone's Commentary

Sometimes events that can shape the political landscape for decades only make a blip on the media radar. Sometimes they are only are seen as important in retrospect.

It was kept on his schedule as "To be announced" but it was pretty clear that President Bush was going to address the NAACP convention on July 19, 2006. He last addressed the NAACP convention while a candidate for his first term in office. Since then Chairman Julian Bond and other NAACP officials have spent hundreds of hours trashing President Bush. Bond especially has referred to the President as a NAZI and a very evil man.

So why was Bond seen on the stage of the NAACP convention hugging President Bush. What has changed? Why the 180 degree turn? Surely it is obvious that the NAACP had to promise the president he would receive a cordial welcome. After all the President refused their invitation in. 2001,2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.. Why would the President care about the NAACP in 2006. He will never run for office again Surely the NAACP was the one to change.

There are tw likely factors that caused the NAACP to got hat in hand to the White House to invite the President to speak. First of all Blacks last got something from the Democrats when LBJ was president. They have been taken for granted for decades. Secondly young upwardly mobile blacks are in increasing numbers voting for Republicans. It is hard to keep the have nots down down on the farm after they have become haves/

The NAACP message had for decades been you can't succeed because Whitey is holding you down. It is hard to sell that to a black who is half way up the ladder of success and all he has seen so far is white hands reaching down to pull him up to the next level.

For decades the NAACP has spewed its venom. But as more and more blacks reach the middle and upper middle class, they can see that the NAACP had it all wrong. That is not good for the NAACP.

I think it is important to note that the poverty pimps are poverty pimps because that is what keeps them in power. I don't really think they believe what they say. It is just what they have always done to stay in power.

Note that RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman has been touring visiting with many blacks all over the USA. I am sure he has pointed out several things. Blacks are getting nothing from Democrats. And that Blacks are transitioning from a single party voting block to a voting block that is up for grabs.

Finally the leadership of NAACP must have realized that if Blacks start to leave the Democratic party, the Democratic big wigs will have to earn black votes. I think the NAACP has decided they need to be in play. They no longer want to be confined to the Democrat back yard.

The other factor is that while RNC Chairman Mehlman was reaching out, President Bush continued to draw back. It appears that the president wanted the NAACP to reach out to him.

It is interesting to note that Democratic speakers at the NAACP convention such as Hillary, Kennedy, and Obama could not bring themselves to say President Bush's name. However Bush did get a standing ovation from the audience.

We may very well look back at July of 2006 as the time that the Democrats started to lose their hold on Blacks as a political force. Perhaps it is best to say that it is hard to lead a divided political force in just one direction. .

But the trend lines are plain. In battle ground states Democrats are losing black votes. In Ohio in 2004 eighteen percent of blacks voted for President Bush. If that number goes to 22 percent, a Democrat can't win the presidency.

Mark it down, July 2006. That may very well be when the class and race war ended and Democrats went down in defeat.