McCain Touts School Vouchers, Lower Taxes In NAACP Speech

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) addressed the NAACP's convention in Cincinnati Wednesday, drawing clear contrasts between his policies and those of presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama. Like Sen. Barack Obama, who spoke to convention delegates on Monday evening, the moderate-conservative Republican harked back to the history of the NAACP and its role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s. Then he moved on to current issues, emphasizing education reform and pointing out that low-income African Americans are most seriously affected by poor schools. He touted vouchers that would give parents options to send their children to private or charter schools, dismissing Sen. Obama's comment that talk about the program is "tired rhetoric." "All of that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?" Sen. McCain said.

He also promised to push for alternative certification that would boost the ranks of teachers, putting school principals in charge of budgets and expanding virtual learning programs. Sen. McCain also touched on other planks in his platform: preserving tax cuts, lowering the business tax rate and offering people tax credits to purchase their own health insurance. In the area of energy, he supported making the United States more energy-independent by building more nuclear plants, developing clean coal technology and encouraging renewable technologies.

My response: It is of little utility for Sen. John McCain to speak at the NAACP national convention. Unlike its fabulous work during the Civil Rights Movement, today's NAACP is a de facto arm of the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. Sen. McCain will be lucky if he gets 10% of the black vote, especially going up against Sen. Barack Obama. I.e., there is little political bang for his buck barking up this tree. His time would have been much better spent speaking before a Catholic group (who comprise many of the undecided voters), a Hispanic group (1/4 of Hispanic voters are undecided right now). Even speaking before a group of black Republicans to keep them from defecting to Sen. Obama's fold - as many apparently plan to do, and if they do so that can change election demographics in a few states in a tight election - would have had more utility. The only reason for Sen. McCain to speak at the NAACP national convention is to help burnish his image with mostly white and Hispanic moderates who will decide this election. It is this same cynicism about indirectly pandering to white moderates which had me wonder about Sen. Obama's black-self-reliance speech before the NAACP on Monday, as his self-reliance rhetoric doesn't match his nanny-state policies. I hope Sen. McCain at least noted in his speech that Sen. Obama sends his own children to private school to avoid bad schools, so why shouldn't the Williams family have the same opportunity to do so as well?