7/20 - Tom Brokaw

• NAACP Speech President George W. Bush spoke to the National Convention of the NAACP in person for the first time in his presidency on July 20 (speech on-line here). In his speech, Bush said that he considered it “a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historic ties with the African American community. For too long my party wrote off the African American vote, and many African Americans wrote off the Republican Party.”
  White House spokesman Tony Snow said on July 18 (transcript on-line here) that Bush had decided to do so at this time because he “wants to make the argument that he has had a career that reflects a strong commitment to civil rights” and “to talk about some of the commonalities he has with members of the NAACP.”
  A Gallup poll of African-Americans’ views on Bush from June 2006 found that 15 percent approved of Bush’s job as president and that 78 disapproved. This is consistent with Bush’s approval rating among African-Americans from June of 2004 and 2005, and the lowest of the five years of Bush’s presidency (poll report on-line here).

• Better Know a District. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Florida) is on-line here. Wexler and other Florida officials generally have opposed drilling off Florida’s coast (recent release on-line here).

posted by Stephen Lee @ 7/21/2006 08:45:00 AM