PITTSBURGH In bid for the votes of blacks, Bush addressing Urban League

The president made his second trip to Pennsylvania in a week.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- President Bush is making a rare appearance before a group that represents black Americans, part of an effort to build ties to a demographic group that overwhelmingly voted against him in 2000.
Bush traveled to Pittsburgh on Monday to address a conference of the National Urban League, a group less critical of his policies than the NAACP, which he has shunned during his 21/2 years in office.
It was his second trip in a week, and the 21st of his presidency, to Pennsylvania, a state he is working hard to capture in next year's election.
Bush planned to give a 25-minute speech, but not to meet otherwise with Urban League leaders or members.
Marc H. Morial, league president and chief executive officer, said delegates would be listening carefully to what Bush said, and to what Democratic rivals said afterward.
Dems also speaking
Seven of the nine major Democratic presidential candidates arranged to address the forum. They were Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois, Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont and Al Sharpton of New York.
"The unemployment rate in the African American community is up. The equality gap between black and whites is still there. There's a great interest in economic issues and issues relating to education and skills training and also a great continuing interest in affirmative action and civil rights," Morial said.
"Those are the areas that I hear from our delegates and I hear from the people who are attending this conference that they will be intently listening for."
Bush drew 9 percent of the black vote in 2000 and has avoided sit-downs with established black groups, reaching out instead to carefully chosen minority audiences for input and backing and to black organizations less critical of his policies.
Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who hitched a ride to Pennsylvania with Bush, said Bush needs to attract more than 9 percent of the black vote if he is to win re-election next year.
"I don't think 9 percent is sufficient," Specter told reporters on Air Force One. "The Urban League is looking for substance."
Other groups snubbed
Bush has yet to meet with the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, whose leaders have met with every president since Warren Harding. Bush addressed the NAACP's annual convention as a presidential candidate in 2000, but he hasn't been back.
Nor has he met with the omnibus Leadership Conference of Civil Rights. He met for just an hour or so, during his first month in office, with the Congressional Black Caucus, but has ignored the group's half-dozen subsequent requests to meet again.
NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said he requested meetings with Bush in 2001 and 2002. "I was told politely, in writing, that he'd love to meet, but his schedule just didn't allow it," he said.
"That may be the difference between Bush and his father," Mfume added. "While we certainly did not agree on many issues, you can never accuse George H.W. Bush of not taking time to reach out and to listen. He wasn't aloof like this president."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan disputed that.
"The president is someone that is an inclusive leader and he talks to a variety of groups from across the political spectrum and reaches out to people from all walks of life," McClellan said last week when pressed on why Bush decided to address the Urban League but skipped the recent NAACP convention in Miami.