It might not be the case that Bush has given up on the black vote, but it is almost certainly the case that he's given up on the NAACP -- and rightfully so.

Over the past thirty years, the NAACP has been consistently racist, consistently victimist, and consistently statist. It's also spared no pains to insult Republicans in general, and George W. Bush in particular. Dubya probably hasn't forgotten their James Byrd attack ad; I know I haven't.

If there's a more scrofulous, less defensible lobbying organization than the NAACP anywhere in the United States, I can't name it. Talk to African potentates? That's part of the President's job as our chief of state. Talk to the NAACP? Not even mentioned in the fine print. Given its attitude toward the GOP and its "leaders'" rhetoric toward him and his Administration, even to acknowledge its existence would mistakenly grant it more respect than it deserves.

Black Americans are gradually waking up to the realities of their situation, and to the immense harm racist-victimist-statist politics have done to them. But one cannot expect the NAACP, after having practiced those politics for more than thirty years, to renounce them. So complete an admission of error would be catastrophic to its "leaders'" futures.