I have never seen so many presidential candidates make such dramatic changes to their schedule so quickly. At least it’s for a good cause.<\/p>\n
The South Carolina NAACP is hosting its annual convention this weekend, starting today in Charlotte, N.C. (It’s not in South Carolina due to the ongoing boycott stemming from the state’s Confederate flag controversy.) The NAACP affiliate sent invitations to each of the nine Democratic presidential candidates (plus a perfunctory invite to Bush) in the hopes that each would want to address a key constituency group in an important early primary state.<\/p>\n
The problem for most of the candidates was one of scheduling. Each participated in a DNC debate in Arizona last night and planned to campaign out west today. As a result, as recently as Monday, only two candidates — Al Sharpton and Carol Mosley Braun — had agreed to attend the NAACP event this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Having seven no-shows (eight if you count Bush, who also declined) did not sit well with conference organizers.<\/p>\n
“If they really want their people to know where they stand on certain issues, they should be there,” NAACP President James Gallman said<\/a>. <\/p>\n Suddenly, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt, and Dennis Kucinich cancelled previously scheduled events<\/a> out west and announced they’d be able to make it.<\/p>\n That left three candidates out — John Kerry, Howard Dean, and Wesley Clark — which just happen to be the three leading Dems.<\/p>\n To his credit, Clark, who had fundraisers scheduled in San Francisco this afternoon, changed his plans and will attend<\/a> the NAACP event, leaving only Kerry and Dean out. Nevertheless, the speed with which the candidates changed their schedules demonstrates that the Dems recognize the importance of African-American voters. No one will be taking this constituency for granted.<\/p>\n At this point, there doesn’t appear to be a leading candidate with African Americans nationwide, though Clark has the early lead, making events such as today’s all the more significant. <\/p>\n
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\nI don’t imagine any of the candidates will be at their best. They’ll be speaking at a forum after traveling across the country, through three time zones, about 12 hours after a nationally televised event concluded last night. Indeed, several of these candidates hosted post-debate gatherings, which will probably make them a little extra drowsy this afternoon.<\/p>\n