Special Report | The racial overtones of the GOP Presidential Campaign, Week of February 5

There has been a racist overtone to many of the Republican attacks leveled in the 2012 presidential campaign.
 
5 new items including:

• How to Listen for Racism on the Campaign Trail
• In 2012 GOP Primary Campaign, "Racist Dog Whistle" Sounds Like a Bullhorn
• Associates of Ron Paul say he proofed and signed off on racist newsletters
• Republicans get free ride on racism
• The 10 Most Racist Moments of the GOP Primary (So Far)

Jeanette Eastman, Associate Editor, Evergreene Digest

Steve Greenberg

How to Listen for Racism on the Campaign Trail, Jeffrey Goldberg, San Francisco (CA) Gate
The former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who last week endorsed Gingrich, told me in an interview last year that Obama was more "international" than American. He also said that, unlike Obama, he rejects the label "African-American" because he feels "more of an affinity for America than I do for Africa."
 
In 2012 GOP Primary Campaign, "Racist Dog Whistle" Sounds Like a Bullhorn, Scott Harris interview of Kevin Alexander Gray, Between the Lines
As candidates for the Republican party nomination for president battle each other in primary states this year, the nation is reminded of the party’s longtime history of appealing to racial hatred. Since President Johnson signed civil rights legislation 40 years ago, many politicians within the GOP have embraced racial politics to win over white voters, especially in the South, where the majority of whites had been loyal Democrats since the New Deal era of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Associates of Ron Paul say he proofed and signed off on racist newsletters, Meteor Blades, Daily Kos
For months the cheerful, kindly renegade Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has acted like a victim when it comes to attention given the racist newsletters that were published two decades ago under his name.

Republicans get free ride on racism, Teresa Albano, People's World
Republican presidential candidates celebrated the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in confederate style. They held a debate.

The 10 Most Racist Moments of the GOP Primary (So Far), Chauncey DeVega, Alternet
One cannot forget that the contemporary Republican Party was born with the Southern Strategy, winning over the former Jim Crow South to its side of the political aisle, and as a backlash against the civil rights movement.