Anybody see the republican presidential debate?

I didn't watch the debate, because the top five GOP candidates chose not to participate. I did, however, happen to flip past Cspan and catch Mitt Romney and a couple others at the Family Research Council debate this weekend, and they had some very interesting perspectives on the Black community.

Although the speeches seemed very scripted, one thing that caught my attention was the fact that they announced support towards strengthening Black families and empowering parents in urban neighborhoods. This was in front of a mainly White, conservative audience.

If the GOP smartened up and started seriously pursuing conservative leaning Black voters, they actually might do some damage. But it looks like they don't have any intention of doing that.

I agree with you that Clinton is getting lots of media attention, and in her case that could be doing more harm than good. She's an easy target for critics, and even many Democratic supporters think she's a bit too liberal. Obama, on the other hand, is running a focused, strategic campaign. He's limiting his exposure and avoiding risk. That's not the glamorous thing to do now, but it's the kind of strategy that wins primaries.

I didn't catch the debates, I was BlackArtConnecting things. But I think Jonathan makes a good point about the GOP missing a huge opportunity to connect with Afram voters. Have past GOP hopefuls really reached out to our community in the past anyway?

Actually, in some cases, they have... even though the war in Iraq and debacles like this one are interfering with their progress. But nowhere like they'd need to in order to secure a serious portion of the Black vote.

There is a portion of the African American community that would be very receptive to self-sufficiency, traditionalist family and Christian values, support for small business, and stronger controls on immigration. However, the GOP doesn't have a great deal of experience in approaching the Black community and is just recently starting to experiment with it. More often, we're written off as unreachable.

Aww man, I missed it again.

nope