GOP fears charges of racism, sexism

[Gan]

Top Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee.

The Republican National Committee has commissioned polling and focus groups to determine the boundaries of attacking a minority or female candidate, according to people involved. The secretive effort underscores the enormous risk senior GOP operatives see for a party often criticized for its insensitivity to minorities in campaigns dating back to the 1960s.

The RNC project is viewed as so sensitive that those involved in the work were reluctant to discuss the findings in detail. But one Republican strategist, who asked that his name be withheld to speak candidly, said the research shows the daunting and delicate task ahead.

Republicans will be told to “be sensitive to tone and stick to the substance of the discussion” and that “the key is that you have to be sensitive to the fact that you are running against historic firsts,” the strategist explained.

more...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8659.html

[Latrinsorm]

Thank God it's not the first candidate of Vietnamese descent.

[Tsa`ah]

I guess it does make sense to prepare for the backlash of racist claims when members of your own party and conservative media/blog spheres perpetuated the issue to begin with.

I think the GOP would have better served themselves if they had gagged everyone from Rove down to Schiffren the moment Obama stepped into the contest.

[Warriorbird]

Republicans aren't racist or sexist. They just hate you if you're not a Republican.

[Parkbandit]

We don't hate you.. we just know you are beneath us. It's more of an unempathetic pity

[Necromancer]

Yeah, this is so ironic. Republicans have been using hot topic issues like Affirmative Action and Equal Rights (always relying on racist and sexists sentiments to be riled up in their favor) to galvanize voters, and now *GASP* some of those voters are running for office! Good lord.

(Not that it'll actually hurt that as much as it should- people don't really care)

[crb]

Being against affirmative action doesn't make you racist.

In the house 80% of republicans voted for the civil rights act, only 61% of democrats. I Al Gore's daddy was against it.

The further you go back in history the more you see Republican's as being the party for equality, of course culminating in the civil war.

Not that there aren't bat shit crazy racists in the party, in both parties (Robert Byrd, current Democrat Senator, former KKK member), but records are records.

[BigWorm]

But presenting the affirmative action issue in a way that panders to bigots IS racist.

[Gigantuous]

Oh FFS, all they have to do is challenge obama or clinton on the issues that he (obama) has absolutely no experience dealing with, or that she (clinton) is so wishy-washy depending on who she's talking to that anything she says will be reversed in a week it's ridiculous.

Clinton takes no solid stance on anything that I've seen except healthcare, and her idea to socialize healthcare is idiotic and will destroy the -quality- of the healthcare system.

Obama's stances (from what I've seen, please enlighten me if you've actually heard him say something besides "change" and "hope" and "adding 47 million families to the healthcare plan") are non-existant or a total mystery.

Don't attack on stupid shit like race/sex, attack on issues.

[Back]

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4850/facepalm8bu0.jpg

[Daniel]

Talk about a lost cause.