Bush on racism

The text of the speech can be read in its entirety here.

It's quite well written to be sure, with an abundance of references to God, freedom, and the glorious days of America's infant past. However, the major thing that bothered me was Bush's little bit about ending racism. It's almost a known fact that the Bush presidency has had one of the worst relationships with the African-American community in recent memory. Here's a little excerpt from washingtontimes.com:

King Day bash
"ABC's Peter Jennings decided to use Martin Luther King Day to showcase how President Bush has a 'difficult relationship' with black Americans, as illustrated by how 'he got only 9 percent of the black vote four years ago and 11 percent in this election,' " the Media Research Center's Brent Baker reports at www.mediaresearch.org.
"The piece by reporter Dan Harris featured blacks who denounced Bush. One man asserted: 'If I was a schoolteacher, he'd have an F.' Another complained: 'We're spending billions of dollars on that war. And then, we have citizens of our nation, our prosperous nation, who don't have health care.'
"Harris elaborated: 'In his first four years, Mr. Bush angered many blacks by supporting a lawsuit against affirmative action, and by refusing to speak to the NAACP.' Harris failed to mention how the NAACP ran TV ads in 2000 blaming Bush for the dragging murder of James Byrd. Harris relayed how a former congressman contended that Bush's appointments 'matter far less than' his lack of effort to combat discrimination."

I mean, seriously, affirmative action is one thing, but to REFUSE to meet with a credible organization like the NAACP throughout the entire span of his first term? I sincerely hope that someone catches him on that one. Ah, presidential hypocrisy at its best...