Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney is booed for the longest time of his presidential campaign after telling NAACP conference he would end Obamacare

Mitt Romney endured the most sustained booing of his presidential campaign – more than 15 seconds – when he told the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People that would ‘eliminate…Obamacare’.

The presumptive Republican nominee knew he would be facing a potentially hostile crowd at the NAACP conference in Houston - 95 per cent of blacks voted for President Barack Obama four years ago.

He seemed briefly stunned, however, by the booing and catcalling from the audience and departed from his prepared remarks to argue that Obama’s healthcare reform would cause businesses to shed jobs.

Romney’s reception was initially polite, even warm at times. But that changed when he said: ‘I'm going to eliminate every non-essential expensive programme I can find, that includes Obamacare.’

Abandoning his script, he quelled the boos by saying: ‘You know, there was a survey of the Chamber of Commerce, they carried out a survey of their members, about 1500 were surveyed.

‘And they asked them what effected that Obamacare would have on their plans and three-quarters of them said it would make them less likely to hire people.

‘So I say again if our priority is jobs and that's my priority that's something I'd change and I will replace with something that provides people something they need in healthcare, which is lower cost, good quality , a capacity to deal with people who have pre-existing conditions and I'll put that in place.’

Romney was also booed when he promised to ‘open up energy, expand trade, cut the growth of government, focus on better educating tomorrow’s workers today and restore economic freedom’ and added that Obama would not do this.

‘And I know the President will say he’s going to do those things, but he has not, he will not, he cannot, and his last four years in the White House prove it definitively.’

There were some boos, and some laughter, when he said: ‘I have no hidden agenda and I submit to you this. If you want a president who will make things better in the African American community, you are looking at him.’

He added, defiantly: ‘You take a look.’ Someone in the crowd yelled: ‘For real?’

At first sight, a politician being booed by an audience could be considered a disaster. And what, some might ask, did he hope to achieve before a group overwhelmingly supportive of Obama, who became America’s first black president four years ago?

But Romney’s speech might well have been designed not for those in the room but the broader electorate and for conservatives.

Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist, told CNN that the crowd was ‘right to boo’ because ‘Obamacare’ was ‘derogatory terminology used by an intolerant group of Americans’.

Back in March, however, the Obama campaign fully embraced the term Obamacare, formerly mainly the preserve of conservative critics of Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, sent out an email saying: ‘I like Obamacare. I'm proud of it -- and you should be, too. Here's why: Because it works. So if you're with me, say it: "I like Obamacare."’

Unfortunately for Axelrod and his team, while the term Obamacare is not viewed as offensive by most Americans, the legislation it describes remain deeply unpopular.

Calling for its repeal appeals to independent voters and is also a rallying cry for conservatives, many of whom were dismayed when the Romney campaign at first denied that Obamacare was a tax, as the Supreme Court ruled, before correcting itself.

The speech might also have gone some way towards reassuring those who view Romney as a political weathervane willing to pander to whoever he is speaking to.

By going to speak to a group that does not support him and telling its member things he knew they would not agree with, Romney appeared to be making a determined stand on principle – the kind of show of character that can appeal to voters.

After the speech, Romney told Fox News after the event that ‘we expected’ the negative response. ‘I am going to give the same message to the NAACP that I give across the country, which is that Obamacare is killing jobs.

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