[Yashcheritsiy]

Because they are invited and telling your story and giving your opinion to people diametrically apposed to your philosophy may change one or two or maybe even several percentages of voters minds and that is enough to win the whole shebang.

No it's not.

Blacks make up ~12% of voters.

Let's say that Romney speech at the NAACP pursuaded 1% of these voters. Romney just gained 0.12% of the vote.

Let's say he pursuaded 5% - He just went up 0.6%.

Let's say he pursuaded an impossibly unlikely 10% of black voters to move away from Obama and to himself. He gains 1.2% of the total vote.

Meanwhile, if McCain in 2008 had improved his standing with white voters by a mere 5%, he would have handily defeated Obama. And doing that for a Republican would be grossly easier than appealing to large numbers of black voters, who by and large hold diametrically opposite positions (as Romney just found) on economic issues than Republicans.

No offence, but minority outreach is largely a waste of GOP dollars. Sure, if they want to pump a couple million into it just to keep up appearances, fine. But I wouldn't put a whole lot into that kitty, if I were them.

[Jim from C-Town]

You misunderstood what I said. I said he may persuade 1, 2, or several % points of UNDECIDED voters. Blacks have all either decided to vote for Obama or not. About 7% of the entire electorate is undecided. If he is scene as fearless enough to go to a hostile environment may make some undecideds brave enough to do the right thing and vote against Obama!