Performance rule number one: know your audience. After vowing to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and other "non-essential, expensive programs" if elected president, the Republican presidential candidate was met with boos Wednesday at the NAACP convention in Houston, Texas. Not once, but three times. His line that would make a better president for the black community than Obama, American’s first black president, didn’t sit well either.
"If I am president, job one for me will be creating jobs. I have no hidden agenda,” Romney told the crowd. "If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him.'' More boos.
The former Massachusetts governor faced an uphill battle to win over the crowd, as members of the well-established civil rights organization are some of Obama's staunchest supporters.
After the speech, Romney said he "expected" some of the negative reaction. "I am going to give the same message to the NAACP that I give across the country which is that Obamacare is killing jobs," he said on Fox News.
Vice President Biden is scheduled to address the group on Thursday. In 2008, both Obama and his GOP opponent, Senator John McCain, spoke in front of the NAACP.