As minority voters abandoned the GOP in droves this past cycle, those who will vote on the next chairman of the Republican Party are struggling with the difficult issue of race.
The Democrats are seen as having advantages: Traditionally they have won more minority voters, and now the party will be led by the first African-American president. And, for Republicans, race proves to be a particularly thorny issue that can cause problems for even the most adept political operators.
The most recent example came when former Tennessee GOP chairman Chip Saltsman, a candidate for chairman of the Republican National Committee, sent a CD with a parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro" to RNC members. First reported by The Hill, the CD set off a wave of criticism and elicited sharp rebukes from several prominent voting members.
That incident came on top of a number of gaffes throughout the 2008 election. In September, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) told The Hill he thought then-presidential candidate Barack Obama was "uppity," a racially tinged word. Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ken.) apologized in April for referring to Obama as a "boy."
At rallies held for the Republican presidential ticket, media focused on attendees who called Obama a "terrorist" and emcees, most famously Cincinnati radio host Bill Cunningham, who frequently invoked Obama's middle name to rile up a crowd.
Finishing Reid Wilson's article >>> Here
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