Joe Biden Did Much Better With NAACP Than Mitt Romney – Or Did He?

Joe Biden fared much better with the NAACP than Mitt Romney. All he had to do was hit the right chord, and accuse the Republican Party of destroying civil rights in the U.S.

The audience enthusiastically received the vice president, who warned the crowd that the GOP stood in opposition to the very thing the NAACP was designed to protect – civil rights. Biden went on to point out exactly how the right wing of the political spectrum was threatening those rights once again as election season heats up. “Remember what this (group), at its core, was all about,” said the VP of his captive audience. “It was about the right to vote.” He then criticized the GOP’s latent efforts to enact voter ID laws, asking, “Did you think we’d be fighting these battles again?”

“On civil rights, your raison d’etre, the reason for our existence,” Biden said, “I want to remind everybody of one thing: Remember, remember what this [organization], at its core, was all about… It was all about the franchise. It was about the right to vote. Because when you have the right to vote, you have the right to change things.”

Biden went on to say “this ain’t your father’s Republican Party,” and campaigned with hard rhetoric for incumbent president Barack Obama, listing the administrations accomplishments, according to ABC. He singled out the 2009 auto bailout, saying it was “not popular but it was critical”; pointed to the killing of Osama bin Laden as a “bold decision with profound risks;” and of course, touted the Affordable Care Act that “required [Obama] early on to use up all of his political capital” but added that the reforms led to historic benefits for African-Americans.

“They have never let up,” admitted Biden of the GOP’s efforts to block Obama’s administration. “But neither has my guy,” he said.

Of course, being a well-received speaker with the NAACP isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sure, the Obama administration desperately needs the African-American vote, who back both the incumbent president and the Democratic Party “overwhelmingly.” But what about this guy?

John Dickerson of Slate says the NAACP did him a favor by booing him, because it gave Romney a headline, obscured some negative press headed his way, and kept him in control of the “conversation,” which is all that really matters in an election. “It’s in their candidate’s interest to get booed and to have that booing reported,” writes Dickerson.

“Quiet golf clapping and even sustained applause would rob Romney of explaining how steadfast he is going to be in the interviews that followed. It would weaken the Daniel in the Lion’s Den story. Big deal Daniel, the lion’s just purred at you. This is why, when candidate Obama in 2008 told of being grumbled at by auto executives for his position on auto emissions, he left out the part about how they gave him a standing ovation at the end of the speech.”

So did Biden really accomplish anything here? It might be too soon to tell, but when has anyone really paid any attention to what he has to say anyway? Obama is the public speaker, Obama is the media snake-charmer. Who is Biden but an empty suit?

Think about it.