Kerry Unites NAACP - Bush Attacks It

CNN - Sen. John Kerry promised civil rights leaders Thursday he will be a "uniter," bringing opportunities and justice to those left out in the cold by the Bush administration.

Kerry received virtually a hero's welcome at the convention, which President Bush did not attend. Bush is the first president since the 1930s not to attend the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group.

Even before Kerry entered the packed convention hall, he was cheered. As his entry was announced, the song "We Are Family" blared throughout the room, and conventioneers swarmed the senator from Massachusetts. With a wide grin he shook dozens of hands and pumped his fist in the air as he approached the podium.

He used the event to announce a "Front Porch Tour," in which he and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, will visit with families nationwide.

"We're going to talk with them. And most importantly we're going to listen about the values that matter most to the people of this country -- the values that you live by every single day: family, responsibility, inclusion, opportunity, fairness, faith, and the most revolutionary value of all, that we are all created equal on this earth."

Rod Paige Blasts NAACP Leaders

Rod Paige, the nation's first black education secretary, condemned NAACP leaders Thursday for saying some black groups are fronts for white conservatives.

"You do not own, and you are not the arbiters of, African-American authenticity," said Paige, who rose from segregated Mississippi to become President Bush's education chief.

Paige's comments, in a Wall Street Journal column titled "Naked Partisans," appeared on the same day Bush's challenger, Democrat John Kerry, was speaking at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Philadelphia. Bush is at odds with the NAACP and has not spoken to the civil rights group since his 2000 campaign.

Paige took aim at two NAACP leaders, chairman Julian Bond and president Kweisi Mfume, for what he called "hateful and untruthful rhetoric about Republicans and President Bush." At the convention, NAACP officials have described some black organizations as mouthpieces of white conservatives and have said Bush's education law disproportionately hurts minorities.

Baltimore Sun: The Massachusetts senator was greeted with thunderous applause by more than 7,000 people who crammed the ballroom of the Pennsylvania Convention Center for the pinnacle of this week's 95th convention of the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"As a campaigner, I know about schedules and speaking to hostile audiences," he said. "But when you're president of the United States, you can pretty much say when and where you want to be. When you're president of the United States, you have to talk to all of the people.

"The president may be too busy to speak to you now, but he's going to have plenty of time to speak after November."