By Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau –
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama chose not to attend this year’s NAACP convention because of “scheduling” issues, aides said, explaining it was not because he did not want to appear before the nation’s most respected civil rights organization.
The president spoke to the convention in 2009, Michelle Obama addressed the group in 2010 and Obama met with the association’s president, Benjamin Jealous, in the White House last year.
This week, Vice President Joe Biden will represent the White House as the association meets in Houston.
“His commitment to the organization and the broader community is easy to see,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said of the president Wednesday afternoon.
Carney added Obama’s economic plans, including his push to extend the Bush-era tax cuts on income up to $250,000 a year, are designed to help middle-class families and, therefore, will help many black American households.
The president is focused on helping “all Americans,” Carney said.