Say It Ain't So Already

Why Rick Perry Might be the Winner in NiggerheadGate

October 3, 2011 at 12:21 PM Leave a comment

I presume you’ve heard the story by now about Rick Perry’s Texas hunting camp that he and his father named, “Niggerhead.”

That said, despite what seems intuitive — that Perry and his campaign will suffer as a result of this revelation — the opposite seems to be the likely outcome in the crazy world of the GOP:

So far, only one of Perry’s GOP rivals has commented on N-WordheadGate: Herman Cain. Asked yesterday about the story, Cain, the only black Republican in the race, lashed out at Perry. “Since Governor Perry has been going there for years to hunt, I think that it shows a lack of sensitivity for a long time of not taking that word off of that rock and renaming the place,” Cain said on This Week.  On Fox News Sunday, Cain added that there “isn’t a more vile, negative word than the N-word and for him to leave it there as long as he did before, I hear, that they finally painted over it, is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country.”

Cain’s reaction is certainly understandable. Anyone could find the revelations offensive, and Cain is a black man who grew up in the segregated South. And yet, as Michael Tomansky points out today, it’s Cain, not Perry, who could be damaged the most by this story. To understand why, you have to consider that there are two things Republicans hate more than anything. One is being accused of racism, which has happened with increasing frequency since President Obama became president, and, if you ask Republicans, is never, ever justified. Two is unfair treatment by the allegedly biased mainstream media. So among Republicans, the widespread response to the Post story was not, “wow, Rick Perry messed up.” It was, “the liberal media is smearing another Republican as a racist!”

Amazing.  Just amazing.

Entry filed under: 2012 Election, Racism, Repression, Republicans, Including Wingers & "Moderates", Teabaggers, WingNutO'Sphere. Tags: .