Kerry promises to be president for all
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, taking advantage of a spat between the United States’ oldest human rights group and the White House, accused US President George Bush today of dividing America by race and wealth, and promised as president to represent “all of the people”.
“The president may be too busy to talk to you,” Kerry told the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People in Philadelphia, “but I have news for you: he’s going to have plenty of time after November 2”.
Bush rejected an invitation to address the group, also known as the NAACP.
He has not spoken to the civil rights group since the 2000 campaign, when the NAACP National Voter Fund ran an ad that portrayed Bush as unsympathetic to the Texas dragging death of James Byrd, who was black.
Since the campaign, leaders of the NAACP have called Bush an illegal president, compared his anti-abortion views to the Taliban, and called his trip to Africa a photo-op.
A Bush spokesman blasted the NAACP today.
“The current leadership of the NAACP has clearly crossed the line in partisanship and civility, making it impossible to have a constructive dialogue,” the spokesman said.
“Despite the current leadership’s intolerant views, President Bush will continue to reach out to members of the NAACP and African-Americans from across the country.”
Kerry said: “I will be a president who is truly a uniter, not one who seeks to divide one nation by race or riches or by any other label.”
He noted the high unemployment rate for blacks, and said Bush had not done enough to improve education, the economy and civil rights for all Americans, including blacks.
