Governor Romney was smart to address the NAACP today

It's doubtful whether Governor Romney can get black Americans to vote for him against President Obama. Especially since many (probably a solid majority) of black Americans believe the GOP is engaged in a nationwide conspiracy to suppress black voting, and since so many blacks work in the public sector that the GOP also seems bent on shrinking massively.

So why address the NAACP? 

1. This will be a close election in all likelihood, and many blacks are very conservative about issues like homosexuality. So even a small shift could pay off, and it isn't inconceivable that socially conservative blacks might at least just stay home, which is pretty much the same as voting for Romney.

2. Getting a black crowd to boo you--as they did when he announced that he was going to repeal the Affordable Care Act, calling it "Obamacare" of course--will play very, very well with the GOP's base: angry white middle aged men without a college degree. 

3. It looks courageous as well as fair-minded. He gains plausible deniability--he can now say that he has reached out to blacks, so no one can accuse the GOP of pursuing a racialist strategy in this election--even though they are, on the down low, starting with the black voter suppression campaign.