Four years ago, presidential candidate George W. Bush went before the NAACP convention in Baltimore and conceded that the Republican Party and the black civil rights group have not always been the best of friends.

"The NAACP and the GOP - not always been allies, I know that," Bush told the convention in 2000. "But recognizing our past and confronting the common future with a common vision - by doing that, I believe we can find common ground. It won't be easy work, but a philosopher once advised, when given a choice, prefer the hard because only the hard will achieve the good."

Since assuming the presidency, Bush's relationship with the NAACP has been more hard than good, a condition that each side blames on the other. Whatever the reason, for the fourth straight year Bush has declined an invitation to attend the venerable civil rights organization's convention, which opens Saturday in Philadelphia and runs through Thursday. He's the first president since Herbert Hoover not to address the group. (via Knight Ridder)