GOP tried to show nation’s true colors

TAMPA, Fla. -- Give the Republican National Convention's choreographers credit: They did their best to show the party's brown side.

And, no, I'm not talking about uber-tan House Speaker and convention chairman John Boehner, R-Coppertone.

A noticeably large percentage of the week's speakers at the Tampa Bay Times Forum were African-American or Latino. Some of those, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio chief among them, took the stage and delivered stirring life stories to the predominantly pale crowd.

To say the Republican Party faces a demographic challenge in a changing America merely states the obvious. With high unemployment, a gargantuan housing crisis and mounting national debt, you would think the campaign wouldn't be close. (There's a reason former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Romney himself on Thursday linked the names Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter.)

But the fact is, Republicans don't do well with minority voters and a majority of women. If the GOP could manage to capture even a slice of the all-inclusive, multi-ethnic magic of its impressively staged event, Campaign 2012 might be all over but the shouting. After watching last week's convention, it's obvious the national party is trying to do just that.

What is important is that after denying the undeniable or writing off such conversations as "playing the race card," high-profile Republicans at last are openly discussing the need to adjust the party's approach without watering down its philosophy.

More than a decade ago, former Republican National Committee chairman Rich Bond admitted in The Washington Post, "We've taken white guys about as far as that group can go. We're in need of diversity, women, Latino, African-American, Asian."

More recently on "Meet the Press," former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush acknowledged the obvious: The GOP needs to expand its field of vision.

"I'm concerned about it over the long haul for sure," Bush said. "There has to be a concerted effort to reach out to a much broader audience than we do today."

And South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told The Washington Post, "The demographics race we're losing badly [sic]. We're not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term."

It's been widely reported that the GOP nationally is approximately 92 percent white, while the percentage of the nonwhite population has more than doubled in the past two decades.

Although much has been made of a recent national poll indicating Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had 0 percent support from African-Americans, his convention lineup proved beyond question that the issue is on his campaign's radar screen.

Trouble is, outside the controlled environment, the GOP's attack machine floods the airwaves with some messages that turn off many Latinos (incendiary rhetoric on immigration reform) and others that are traditional blood-pressure raisers for white voters (the misleading welfare-work issue, for example).

For a man who on first glance seems to represent the GOP's reputation as a party that obsesses on wealthy white father figures, Romney made an effort Thursday to remind us he's more than an All-American male success story.

Romney's campaign regularly meets with African-American and Latino coalitions, and as Massachusetts governor Romney made inclusive Cabinet selections that helped balanced the gender and ethnicity inside government.

Will the campaign's concerted outreach to minorities and women translate into more than well-crafted lip service? Will it prove effective on Election Day and transformative thereafter?

Current polls would indicate that the answer is no. There's too great a divide between the Republican Party and the minorities it's courting.

But by not writing off that essential and growing percentage of Americans, many of whom are hit hardest by the ongoing economic malaise, Mitt Romney has at least given himself a chance to win in November.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Email him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith. Follow him on Twitter @jlnevadasmith.