Yesterday the Washington Post published a below the fold story under the headline “Black Democrats Cross Party Lines To Back Steele For U.S. Senate”. Naturally it didn’t take long for the AP to circle the wagons with their own report headlined “AP Poll: GOP Outreach to Blacks Falters”. In fact it took less than a day.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- So much for the Republican charm offensive toward minorities. Black voters are far less likely to approve of the way President Bush is doing his job than voters generally and they are more likely to feel that the country is on the wrong track, disheartening news for a Republican Party that has been trying to curry favor with minority voters in recent years.
In what could be a particularly bad sign for Republicans in next week's midterm elections, black voters also are more likely to say that the Iraq war was a mistake and that recent disclosures of scandal and corruption in Congress will be very important to their vote, according to an Associated Press-AOL Black Voices poll conducted Oct. 23 through Monday.
It is pretty safe to say that the shroud of objectivity was removed from this report from the first sentence as “writer” Nancy Benac beams “So much for the Republican charm offensive toward minorities.” This sentence alone sets the tone of the rest of the article.
The template is so transparent nowadays that all objectivity is thrown out the window. Benac manages to fit in the following keywords which are all but required, Bush, worst, dumb, war, gas prices, job losses, layoffs and the potential for disenfranchisement at the polls.
Black voters have historically voted Democratic, and their votes are critical to Democratic hopes to win tight Senate contests in Tennessee, Missouri and Virginia.
Unhappiness among black voters is reflected by L.C. Washington, a 41-year-old Democratic graduate student from Montgomery, Ala., who says Bush is "the worst president in history," not to mention "the dumbest president I've ever seen - he's the devil." Washington lays blame for a laundry list of ills at the Republican Party's doorstep.
"Republicans are trying to win over black voters," says Washington, but "not doing a good job. Doing a poor job - the war, gas prices, job losses and the layoffs." [all emphasis mine]
But wait, there’s more, let us not forget the surly quote from the disaffected Republican who is jumping ship on the party.
Even among black Republicans, there clearly still is work for the GOP to do.
"I don't think Republicans are doing any kind of reaching out to African-Americans," said 71-year-old L.D. Harper of Springfield Gardens, N.Y., who's been a Republican since he was 18.
I’m beginning to think that there must be a master list of quotes from disgruntled Republicans from across the nation circulating around every newsroom.
The rest of the report ends like it started finishing up with an informative quote that “The group that is the most uniformly anti-Republican at this time is African-Americans."
The AP directs readers to http://www.ap-ipsosresults.com for poll results but it is nowhere to be found on the site. I also checked over at the AOL Black Voices site to no avail. I am not a big fan of polls and even less so when I have to dig for them. You will note that the AP report actually spans two polls for its report.
I was beginning to think that the MSM had run the gamut of reports on groups that the GOP is failing to bring to the polls. I guess I was wrong. The MSM has now moved beyond GOP constituents and into groups that traditionally lean Democrat. This fresh influx of disaffected voters should leave plenty to report on in the week leading up to the election.
This article is cross posted on Webloggin
