(CNN) - A candidate for Republican National Committee chairman said Friday it was clear the content of a CD he sent committee members for Christmas - that included lyrics from a song called “Barack the Magic Negro” - was intended as a joke.
“I think most people recognize political satire when they see it,” Chip Saltsman told CNN. “I think RNC members understand that.” Saltsman, a former chair of the Tennessee Republican Party, was a top advisor to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and managed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign.
The song, set to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was first played on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show in 2007. Its title was drawn from a Los Angeles Times column that suggested Obama appealed to those who feel guilty about the nation’s history of mistreatment of African-Americans. Saltsman said the song, penned by long-time friend Paul Shanklin, should be easily recognized as satire directed at the Times.
The parody CD sent to RNC members this Christmas, first reported by The Hill Friday, is titled “We Hate the USA”, and includes songs referencing former presidential John Edwards and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, among other targets.
From CNN Politics
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This is why Obama won, why McCain/Palin lost so horribly, and the reason why the Democrats will continue to win. The RNC needs to realize that they cannot win on the Redneck vote alone.
gop is very nasty and haters
300 posts from "OUTRAGED" liberals who have not even listened to the song!! What a surprise. Listen to the song people! Why are there no comments posted that say anything other than "Racists, RNC, blah blah blah. Gee i can't at all tell that CNN has an agenda
So in touch with the people of the nation. So enlightened on issues such as race and poverty that they can satirize them. Poverty and racism!!! Hilarious!!!! What other aspects of human suffering that we rich white men are unaffected by can we joke about? Oh I got one, let's make fun of women, gays, and the handicapped!!! Hey, how about Ted Kennedy the cancerous lion!! Oh that's good. Next years Conservative Christmas album is gonna be good!!!
The RNC seriously needs to stop. Are they going to spend the next 8 years wallowing in Obama hate? Oh let me guess: The democrats did it too when Bush was in office so it's okay. This 5th grade level politicking is exactly why the nation rejected the incumbents at the polls in two elections so far.
Someone needs to explain to the RNC that old Will Rogers line, "The first thing you do when you find yourself in a hole is stop digging."
This story has not even posted at fox news. The religous reich are so pissed that a "black" man will be president.
You've got to be kidding me! What was going through his head besides the wind? Did he crush a beer can against his forehead after he came up with that brainstorm of an idea? America is moving forward and trying to put the divisions and race baitings of the past behind us, not keep them on the front burner. The republican leadership needs to put a stop to this kind of nonsense or else they are going to further marginilize themselves. There is a huge difference between political satire and rascist "jokes". Did he honestly think this wouldn't make the news? Good grief. If ignorance is bliss this guy must be one happy camper.
I am a liberal and i love nothing more than to call people that don't agree with me racists. Have you listened to the song? Doubt it
Will someone please tell the RNC that the majority of America is beyond RACE. And in a Democracy the majority ALWAYS RULES. Remember Nov. 4 2008!!
I am a Republican and this is one of the reasons i voted for Presdient elect Obama......
The old guard of the Republican party just doesn't get it.....this is not what we , the younger (55 and under) want....this is not vision for a brighter future........
God help us if this man becomes the Chairman!!!...Many of us will then switch parties....I can't speak for PE Obama but for me this is offensive along with the other belittling songs he threw out in his defense of justifing this.....Shameful!!!!
The Republican Party uses Rush Limbaugh, who most people know is high on drugs and has incurable racism running through every vein in his fat body, to spew hatred for blacks on the airwaves everyday.
Rush Limbaugh with three failed mariages, lives in a $24 million, 36,500-square-foot oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida has made his fortune off of race-baiting and being the mouthpiece of a Republican Party which still believes in this century that minorities ought to be slaves to be owned, traded and degraded.
The republican party is so damaged by its refusal to face facts and acknowledge that the party will continue to lose one election after the other until they stop worshiping fat racist fools like Limbaugh and others who make millions sowing seeds of racism. You think they lost a lot of seat in this past election? Just watch what will happen to this racist party in future elections if racism continues to be its cornerstone.
These are the folk that portray themselves as true Americans. Wrapped in the flag. The fact is that they're clueless as to what America is all about. They still don't understand why they keep losing to history, time and again. Pathetic.
How ignorant!
Gloria: I too have had the same experiences and thoughts as you!! Well said.
Oh that's freakin mature! Jesus help us- these are the people running our country? I swear, what ever happened to "think before you speak"? I'm 24, and even I, at my age, am completley disgusted with this junk! Come on people, grow a brain!! Time to stop acting like children and taking pot-shots at eachother, and come together!
When those who harbor feelings of bigotry and hate are backed into a corner without any real power, it begins to slip out. whats really sad is this probably won't help Republicans relationship with African Americans. No leadership and an utter disconnect from anyone outside the south someone had better show them the path back to dignity.
To Mike in Syracuse, NY and fellows sore losers:
You are stone cold fools! This song is dedicated you and PUMA trojans. It's an old LL Cool J song (ask your children/grandchildren, they listen to Negro music) 'Ma Ma Gonna Knock You Out:' Put my new president's name in there and you have for 2012: Obama's gonna knock you out! One a$$ whipping wasn't enough-You gonna get two!
Sorry to lay down my edumacation for a minute, but people who write such evil, space alien stuff on these blogs, can't read anyway. Those of you with intelligence will get it.
Note to Michael Steele:
I understand why Justice Clarence Thomas is still a Republican; he fell on his head as a baby and he' s afraid of his wife. But what is your excuse? How can you continue to ignore the blatant racism and down right meanness coming from your fellow members? Whether you believe it or not, they feel the same way about you. Don't believe me? Announce tomorrow that you are switching parties. They'll have a cross burning in your yard as soon as the sun sets.
Thank God that He is still God, and chose a great leader for this great land of ours. That repub shiggidy didn't work this time, and never will again. GA can forget it. That part of the south ain't risin again!
Let Freedom Ring!!!!!!!!!!!
It is absolutely disgusting that some Republicans want this president to fail before he takes the Oath. Racism in the current GOP is blantant. Cry yourselves to oblivion, angry right wingers. To paraphrase Time magazine in regards to the President-Elect, in the land of the hapless, the compentent man is king! May Obama prove you all to be the lazy, greedy and incompentant folks you truly are by his mere example.
Please post this.....please don't leave me in moderation.
Ah, the true colors of the RNC - come home to roost at last. Is anyone really surprised at this. I'm hoping that the next 8 years will show that the Republicans are a party whose time has come and gone - such as the Whig party and the No Nothing Party (oh, wait the Republicans can turn themselves into the No Nothing Party since they already seem to show that).
@sick of it
I listened to the song. I heard it played on Rush's show several times during the election cycle. Even having listened to it on Rush's show I had no idea that it was a satire of an LA Times story. Nor did I think it had any taste or merit–and I am all about satire.
And these people wonder why American voted them out of power! Get with it, RNC! It's not just a white male world any more.
i don't see how the republican party can get out of addressing this issue, it's ovious it is full of racist remarks, they should have put a stop to it back when palin was ranting and raving her racist remarks that could have gotten obama killed, but they chose to ignore it then, when will they face the american people with an honest apoligy and choose people that want to unite this country instead of divide it, God help us.
Not funny. Not funny at all.
Typical from the racist GOP.