Bush Nixes NAACP Invitation

President Last Addressed The Group As A Candidate In 2000

(CBS/AP)  President Bush has declined yet another invitation to speak at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s annual convention.

Mr. Bush addressed the 2000 convention when he was a candidate, but has declined invitations to speak in each year of his presidency. He has thus become the first president since Herbert Hoover not to attend an NAACP convention, said John White, a spokesman for the group.

The NAACP said it received a letter from the White House declining the invitation signed by the presidential scheduler Melissa Bennet.

CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports that White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president had "other scheduling commitments."

The convention opens on Saturday in Philadelphia. Mr. Bush’s challenger, John Kerry accepted an invitation to speak next Thursday on the final day of the convention, according to the group.