Mitt Romney just walked into the lion’s den. Romney, who spoke before the NAACP last week, took his wife Ann and met with Oprah Winfrey on Friday for an interview that will be published in her magazine O, The Oprah magazine.
Winfrey was an ardent supporter of Barack Obama in 2008, and though there have been rumors of a rift between them, still supports him. It’s a reasonably good bet that Winfrey is not going to portray the Romneys in a completely positive light, but Romney has eschewed the approach of some past Republican candidates who ignored the African-American community.
When Romney appeared at the NAACP, he confronted them head-on:
If you want a president who will make things better in the African-American community, you are looking at him. You take a look … If you understood who I truly am in my heart, and if it were possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring best interest of African-American families, you would vote for me for president … I want you to know that if I did not believe that my policies and my leadership would help families of color – and families of any color – more than the policies and leadership of President Obama, I would not be running for president.
He candidly attacked Obama’s failed economic promises: “I know the president has said he will do those things. But he has not. He cannot. He will not.”
Romney has some personal history that makes him a more interesting candidate for the African-American community: his father George was a forceful opponent of segregation and, as governor of Michigan, went into the state’s cities as they were torn apart by race riots. Later, George Romney headed the Department of Housing and Urban Development, where he pushed for housing reforms to help the African-American community.
And now Mitt Romney is letting the grand duchess of Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign interview him. One thing is becoming abundantly clear: Mitt Romney is not John McCain. He is not leaving any stones unturned in his quest to win the 2012 election.
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