On the day before the Green Party's presidential nominating convention,
presidential candidate Jill Stein revealed her running mate to CBS News
exclusively: homeless activist Cheri Honkala.
"She
leads one of the country's largest multiracial, intergenerational
movements led by people in poverty, fighting poverty, homelessness and
foreclosures," Stein told CBS news. Honkala, a mother of two, and the
national coordinator for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign,
spent some of her days homeless. She ran for sheriff of Philadelphia on
the Green Party line in 2011 and based her campaign on a platform of
halting evictions.
"I believe that if you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if
it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real,
enduring best interest of African-American families, you would vote for
me for president," he said. "I want you to know that if I did not
believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color --
and families of any color -- more than the policies and leadership of
President Obama, I would not be running for president."
His
audience greeted him with respectful, if not enthusiastic applause, and
applauded occasionally at points throughout the speech –- until he said
he would eliminate ObamaCare, the Affordable Care Act upheld by the U.S.
Supreme Court two weeks ago. The audience responded with thundering
boos. His listeners also booed a few minutes later when he said he would
be a more responsive president to the African-American community than
the current occupant of the White House.
This was a fair yet slightly pleading appeal. Romney displayed a little more than his usual angst before an audience that demonstrated both polite respect and strong opposition when they disagreed.
I don't think he scored any points with anyone who hasn't already bought what he's selling. And scant few of those people were in the GRB this morning.
Mission not quite accomplished, but he gets an E for effort.
“I have no hidden agenda. I submit to you that if you want a
president who will make things better in the African American community,
you are looking at him,” which was met with a mixture of polite
applause and jeering. Romney soaked it in awkwardly for a few seconds,
then said, with a game nod, “You take a look!”
All things considered, the speech could have gone a lot worse. Aside
from this moment and his promise to end Obamacare, the speech was at
least politely received, and the crowd didn’t even seem to mind when
Romney took a backhanded shot at President Obama for sending Vice
President Joe Biden (who speaks to the convention Thursday) instead of
attending himself, saying that “if I am elected president, and you
invite me to next year’s convention, I would count it as a privilege,
and my answer will be yes.”
The speech was never likely to earn him many, if any, black votes,
but the sections where he was booed were somewhat to be expected, and
reinforce Romney’s position with voters who agree with him on health
care reform, and who are leaning away from the President. The rest of
the speech was vague enough to avoid drawing any more negative
reactions.
