Why The GOP Is Losing

From Politico:

Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan issued a statement Saturday distancing the party’s leadership from one of the GOP’s best-known operatives, Chip Saltsman, who distributed a CD containing “Barack the Magic Negro” as part of his campaign to be elected chairman of the Republican National Committee next month.

Duncan, who has served the campaigns of five presidents dating back to Richard Nixon, is seeking reelection as the party’s 60th chairman in a hotly contested race that includes Saltsman and several other viable candidates.

Saltsman, 40, was former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s campaign manager during the Republican presidential primaries.

Of course, Duncan had waited a day after the news of the CD was widely reported before issuing any statement at all. And then?

Duncan's statement, in full: "The 2008 election was a wake-up call for Republicans to reach out and bring more people into our party. I am shocked and appalled that anyone would think this is appropriate as it clearly does not move us in the right direction."

Right. It's inappropriate not because it's clearly racist and insulting to the President-elect, but because it doesn't forward the agenda of the party.

You'd hope that, after waiting a full day to respond to news of the CD, the RNC's chairman could have come up with something a bit better than that, wouldn't you? Though, to be fair, given where they apparently are starting from, I guess small steps like "don't be racist in public" is moving in the right direction.

Considering that the CD guy is a different guy from the one who just recently left his all-white country club, it'll be a while before the RNC gets that far.