Mitt Romney’s campaign team has been quietly laying plans for an outreach effort to President Barack Obama’s most loyal supporters – black voters – not just to chip away at the huge Democratic margins, but also as a way to reassure independent swing voters that Romney can be inclusive and tolerant in his thinking and approach.

That plan, still in its early stages, ran headlong into the harsh political realities on the ground in Philadelphia on Thursday, when Romney was treated to a hostile welcome on his first campaign swing through a poor, black neighborhood this year.

A few dozen protesters met him with chants of: “Get out, Romney, get out!”