Contemptible

Seriously. What is WRONG with these people?

The latest newsletter by an Inland Republican women's group depicts Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama surrounded by a watermelon, ribs and a bucket of fried chicken, prompting outrage in political circles. It was sent out in an email newsletter to about 200 members, many of whom responded with outrage and anger. But the president of the organization seems surprised that anyone would find her "joke" to be offensive.

The graphic comes from here.

"It was strictly an attempt to point out the outrageousness of his statement [that he doesn't look like other presidents]. 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."

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."

She said she also wasn't trying to make a statement linking Obama and food stamps, although her introductory text to the illustration connects the two: "Obama talks about all those presidents that got their names on bills. If elected, what bill would he be on????? Food Stamps, what else!"

Her disingenous "oh, no, I'm not a racist, narrow-minded offensive bigot I have black friends" is pretty repulsive. No, she's not racist.Those images were just cute, meaningless examples. She never thought of it that way. You believe that, right? All in fun!

Yeah. Riiiiiiiight.

Here's the source of the graphic. There is no way she didn't "know" that this was a racist piece of crap, if she took half a second to actually read the disgusting email or website that she was sent:

Red Kool-Aid, fried chicken, watermelon, and even pork ribs are displayed on the document as a reminder", Plouffe continued, "The food stamp amount correlates to the cost of the item. For example, the $10 food stamp has things like ribs and chicken, while the $5 food stamp relevantly displays Collard Greens, diapers, and MD 20/20."

Anyone reading this think that isn't racist? Anyone reading this who doesn't think it's offensive and patently racist? How could you not?

There is a contingent of right-wing voters who really are hung up on race, and seem to find no problems with expressing that. I guess when their candidate himself doesn't seem to mind the angry, racist shouts at his rallies, the rest of the "base" (and I mean that in all possible connotations) think it's ok. Nice.