On Wednesday morning, Willard gave a speech at the NAACP convention in Houston (note to wingnuts: he did so with the aid of a Teleprompter) and to say it didn't go well is kind of like saying the performance of Our American Cousin that President Lincoln attended fell a little flat.

Willard told the audience that he'd "support traditional marriage" which was weird, because the NAACP came out in favor of same sex marriage a couple months ago. He blamed all of the nation's educational problems on "unions" -- also very odd -- and obviously untrue.

On the plus side, he broke with George W. Bush and said he'd address the NAACP next year if he was president, which did get some applause and surely pissed off the right-wingers that defended Bush for snubbing them all those years.

But then there was this:

I will eliminate all the expensive non-essential programs I can find, that includes Obamacare, and I'm going to work to reform and save...

What's more tone deaf, that he used the pejorative term for the Affordable Care Act, or that he considers health care "non-essential"? Also, the notion that the country's big problem right now is that there's too many "non-essential programs" lying around is pretty loopy, but that kind of talk is par for the course from Republicans. Just don't know what he hoped to gain by saying that. He didn't have to pander, but why wave a red cape in their faces?

Bottom line: I doubt Willard moved the needle on his numbers with African American voters today, but then again, he has nowhere to go but up.



UPDATE: You knew it was coming: Hannity Guest: 'NAACP Has Become a Hate Group'