Wow, that's terribly cold and calculating.
And it's consistent with what a Republican friend told me years ago.
I remember being worried about former RNC chair Ken Mehlman's outreach to blacks, a good eight years ago. And a Republican friend corrected me, telling me not to worry about black voters defecting - the Republicans didn't want or expect their votes. What they were actually doing was trying to convince white suburban middle-of-the-road soccer moms that Republicans weren't a hateful, intolerant, racist party because - see! - we're wooing blacks!
Washington Post:
Mitt Romney’s campaign team has been quietly laying plans for an outreach effort to President Obama’s most loyal supporters — black voters — not just to chip away at the huge Democratic margins but also as a way to reassure independent swing voters that Romney can be inclusive and tolerant in his thinking and approach.
Despite the obvious difficulties, Romney’s outreach to black voters could reap dividends even if he is unable to significantly chip into Obama’s support. “Suburban voters will be a real battleground, and upscale white voters like to think of themselves as tolerant and they won’t vote for a candidate that is seen as exclusionary, and the Romney folks must be aware of that,” said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “He has to persuade suburban voters that he isn’t Rick Santorum. He could break the mold a little bit and do some campaigning in African American communities. It would get people talking, and it would be all gain and very little pain.”
