Romney in the Lions’ Den

“I do not have a hidden agenda.”

That’s what Mitt Romney told the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Wednesday at its 103rd convention.

I’m not so sure about that.

I doubt that Romney thought he’d change many minds among African-Americans when he spoke to the group and I’m not convinced that was even his strategy.

The speech sounded like it was designed not for the audience in the room, but for those in Republican living rooms.

It sounded as though he wanted to show force and fearlessness: “Look folks, I walked into hostile territory unafraid and unbowed.” This was his version of a Daniel in the lions’ den speech.

Talk tough. Get heckled and booed for telling the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. Take the president down a couple of pegs in front of the most loyal segment of his supporters.

But I just don’t think it worked. Romney benefits from not talking and makes problems for himself when he does speak. His disfluency does him a disservice.

Romney began his speech by doing what too many politicians do when addressing minority groups: point out the problems as if the group isn’t intimately aware of them.

“The unemployment rate, the duration of unemployment, average income, median family wealth are all worse in the black community,” Romney said. He talked about the “many disadvantaged young people” who “live in neighborhoods filled with violence and fears, and empty of opportunity.” He talked about the disproportionate number of black children “in our worst-performing schools.”

But the policy prescriptions, to the extent that he offered any, didn’t diverge an inch from the platitudes that have become the mainstay of his campaign: cut taxes, cut government, promote business, promote charter schools, fight teacher unions and gay marriage. And of course, “eliminate every non-essential expensive program I can find. That includes Obamacare.” Cue the boos.

Of course, he also made the obligatory veiled reference to welfare, saying that he believes that the free enterprise system “can bring change where so many well-meaning government programs have failed.”

But these were all Republican bromides. There was little in the way of specifics and no special appeals. This is exactly what his base wants from him. Romney said, “my campaign is about helping the people who need help.” That is just vague enough so that everyone can believe that he’s talking about them, not “the other.” And that is exactly how Romney would like it to sound.

The N.A.A.C.P. was not amused. It issued a statement that read in part:

This morning Governor Romney laid out his policy agenda for this nation.Unfortunately, much of his agenda is at odds with what the N.A.A.C.P. stands for – whether the issue is equal access to affordable health care, reforming our education system or the path forward on marriage equality. We appreciate that he was courageous and took the opportunity to speak with us directly.

The Obama campaign responded to Romney’s speech with a five-page memo entitled “Mitt Romney: The Wrong Choice for African American Communities.”

Romney said that his “policies and vision will help millions of middle class Americans of all races.”

That assertion simply isn’t true — at least when it comes to tax policy.

As the Washington Post reported last month:

The tax reform plan that House Republicans have advanced would sharply cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and could leave middle-class households facing much larger tax bills, according to a new analysis set to be released Wednesday.

Romney has embraced that tax plan.

The Post quoted Sen. Robert P. Casey, Jr., a Pennsylvania Democrat who chairs the Joint Economic Committee as saying, “According to this report, while millionaires will receive a huge tax break, earners making under $200,000 will see their taxes rise significantly.”

And when it comes to African Americans in particular, The Center for American Progress Action Fund published a chart Tuesday that pointed out that “2,200,000 African American working families, encompassing almost half of all African American children, would receive a tax increase from the loss of tax credits from the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit” under a Romney presidency while “603,000 millionaires (100 percent), will receive a tax cut in 2015, with the average tax cut for millionaires being $250,000. “

Just helping the people who need help, you know?

On education, Romney, who has already said that he would dramatically scale back the Department of Education to become basically an instrument to fight the teacher’s unions, said that under his administration:

For the first time in history, if I’m president federal education funds will be linked to a student, so that parents can send their child to any public or charter school they choose.

Dismantling the public school system is not the same as fixing it. Scapegoating teachers while turning a blind eye to environmental factors affecting poor performance and test results isn’t the answer either. And another unsettling fact about charter schools is that they are less racially diverse than public schools, according to a recent study by the Civil Rights Project at U.C.L.A. Re-segregation isn’t progress.

Lastly, this was not the crowd for the “repeal Obamacare” message. Blacks strongly support  the law. Romney must have known that.

The N.A.A.C.P. was most likely just a prop in Romney’s performance. His agenda, hidden in plain sight, was to hold the line under pressure, and speak half-truths to gain power.

12:55 a.m. | Updated

According to Buzzfeed, this is what Romney told a group of donors in Hamilton, Mont. on Wednesday night:

I had the privilege of speaking today at the N.A.A.C.P. convention in Houston and I gave them the same speech I am giving you. I don’t give different speeches to different audiences all right.

Romney added:

When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare they weren’t happy, I didn’t get the same response. That’s O.K, I want people to know what I stand for and if I don’t stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, that’s just fine.

Revealingly, there was more:

But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff. But don’t forget nothing is really free. It has to paid for by people in the private sector creating goods and services, and if people want jobs more than they want free stuff from government, then they are going to have to get government to be smaller. And if they don’t want to repeal Obamacare they are going to have to give me some other stuff they are thinking about cutting, but my list takes Obamacare off first and I have a lot of other things I am thinking of cutting.