Ever Wonder Why The GOP Never Gets More Than 10% of African American Votes For President? The Reason Is People Like This

The official newsletter of the Republican women's group in California's Inland Empire ran this as the cover illustration.



As you can imagine, there were some who felt the imagery might perhaps possibly be construed as racist. Presumably the watermelon, ribs, and fried chicken. On a food stamp. I know, it's pretty subtle, so you can see how group head Diane Fedele might have completely missed the nuance here.

The few African American women in the group certainly did find it troubling.

All this is reported here in the Press Enterprise web site. The shocked head of the group insists the imagery was not racist.

Fedele had this to say:

"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement. I really don't want to go into it any further," Fedele said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I absolutely apologize to anyone who was offended. That clearly wasn't my attempt."

Actually Diane, the word you were looking for is intent. Remember that the next time you accuse anyone of not speaking English to your presumably lofty standards.

Diane went on, and made it worse.

Fedele said she got the illustration in a number of chain e-mails and decided to reprint it for her members in the Trumpeter newsletter because she was offended that Obama would draw attention to his own race. She declined to say who sent her the e-mails with the illustration.

She said she doesn't think in racist terms, pointing out she once supported Republican Alan Keyes, an African-American who previously ran for president.

"I didn't see it the way that it's being taken. I never connected," she said. "It was just food to me. It didn't mean anything else."

Oh my. The article goes on:

Hector Barajas, the party's press secretary, said the party chairman likely will have a conversation with Fedele, and Barajas will attend the statewide California Federation of Republican Women conference this weekend in Los Angeles to handle any news media there to cover the controversy.

The newsletter is not the first such episode Barajas has had to respond to this week. The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday posted an image it said was captured from the Sacramento County GOP Web site that showed Obama in a turban next to Osama bin Laden.

It said: "The difference between Osama and Obama is just a little B.S." The site also encouraged members to "Waterboard Barack Obama," a reference to a torture technique. The Sacramento County party took down the material Tuesday after being criticized.