Maine GOP Chair: I See Black People
DId you know only about 1 percent of Mainers are of the African American variety of American? Did you know that adds up (every little bit counts!) to about 15,000 or so black Mainers? Well Maine GOP chair Charlie Webster apparently did not know that, because, as he told NBC, a whole bunch of black people showed up to vote on Election Day -- dozens and dozens of them! -- but Charlie Webster and his friends don't know anyone who's black! He's not saying they vote frauded Maine ... he is just sayin'.
In some parts of rural Maine, there were dozens, dozens of black people who came in and voted on Election Day. Everybody has a right to vote, but nobody in town knows anyone who’s black. How did that happen? I don’t know. We’re going to find out….
I’m not politically correct and maybe I shouldn’t have said these voters were black, but anyone who suggests I have a bias toward any race or group, frankly, that’s sleazy.
Yes, "sleazy" was just the word we were looking for. Thanks, Charlie Webster!
In other news, President Barack Osama Bin Laden Obama won the state of Maine by over 100,000 votes, or "15 percent." Must have been some very industrious black people!
[ ThinkProgress ]
Actually, in the update, it turns out he does have a black friend, who he plays basketball with every week, so there.
Of course, that raises the question, where does this baller live? In the town with no black people?
Also, to, in the update, he's up to "hundreds" from "dozens". This guy is a regular barrel of fail.
Maine is <i>sui generis</i> - it&#039;s a point of state pride that people think for themselves, and aren&#039;t particularly keen on either political party. (The bare fact that a candidate is an independent is a big plus, right out of the gate.) It&#039;s an odd mix of tea-party-ish thinking and the Yankee small town ethos. Not a lot of brain-dead teabaggers, but not many die-hard liberals either. There&#039;s a belief in good government, and a mistrust of slippery millionaires, which worked to Obama&#039;s advantage. Also, I&#039;m not surprised that the GOP&#039;s make-the-rich-richer fiscal plans did not go over well among an electorate that&#039;s inclined to think.
As for Charlie Webster&#039;s remarks, the non-while population is miniscule, so it&#039;s actually true that many or most people don&#039;t have black acquaintances; it&#039;s also true that most have no legacy of inherited prejudice. He&#039;s clueless, but not necessarily in a bad way. He probably did hear from people who were wondering where all those black folks (dozens of &#039;em!) were coming from. He just needs to stop drinking Karl&#039;s Kool-Aid.