While the Romney/Ryan campaign and the GOP at large labor to give the false appearance that the Party is inclusive and that Mitt's "just like you and me," a series of mishaps reflect the true story. First we have big GOP donors being feted on a huge yacht flying the Cayman Island Flag to racist episodes at the convention itself. Anyone who falls for the GOP propaganda machine is clearly an easy mark for the next flim flam man or con artist that comes along. First, these highlights from ABC News on the donor party expose:
Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the flag of the Cayman Islands.
The floating party, hosted by a Florida developer on his yacht "Cracker Bay," was one of a dozen exclusive events meant to nurture those who have raised more than $1 million for Romney's bid.
"I think it's ironic they do this aboard a yacht that doesn't even pay its taxes," said a woman who lives aboard a much smaller boat moored at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.
Romney's Cayman-based investments have come under fire during the campaign.
The event, attended by no more than 50 people, along with Romney relatives, including older brother Scott, appeared on no public calendars. ABC News obtained a schedule of the Romney campaign's "Victory Council" and waited dockside to speak with members. "It was a really nice event. These are good supporters," said billionaire Wilbur Ross, an energy industry executive.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was scheduled to speak. Registered in the Caymans, and flying a version of the Caymans' "civil ensign" or merchant flag, the Cracker Bay has an impressive art collection and can seat 30 for dinner.
If that doesn't send a message, then the racial incidents at the convention ought to do so and the public should not be duped by the appearance of a few cherry picked black faces in the speaker line up. The Washington Post looks at these incidents. Here are excerpts:
From the convention stage here, the Republican Party has tried to highlight its diversity, giving prime speaking slots to Latinos and blacks who have emphasized their party’s economic appeal to all Americans.
But they have delivered those speeches to a convention hall filled overwhelmingly with white faces, an awkward contrast that has been made more uncomfortable this week by a series of racial headaches that have intruded on the party’s efforts to project a new level of inclusiveness.
On Tuesday, convention organizers ejected two attendees after they reportedly threw peanuts at a black CNN camerawoman and told her, “This is how we feed animals.” Organizers called the conduct “inexcusable and unacceptable.”
And on Wednesday, Yahoo News fired Washington bureau chief David Chalian after a live microphone caught him telling a colleague, before an online event, that Romney and his wife, Ann, were “happy to have a party with black people drowning,” a reference to the RNC’s decision to go ahead with the convention while Hurricane Isaac lashed New Orleans. Chalian later apologized.
Exit polls from 2008 showed that 90 percent of GOP voters were white, a homogeneity that has been consistent for more than 30 years, even as the percentage of the electorate that is white has fallen. Nonwhite voters favored Obama over Romney by better than three to one in a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll from early August; 74 percent of Latino voters and 90 percent of African Americans backed Obama.
And despite a speaker lineup in Tampa . . . . just 2 percent of convention delegates are black.
Raynard Jackson, a black GOP political consultant, wrote Tuesday on the RootDC Live blog that he is “embarrassed by the lack of diversity” at the convention and frustrated by his party’s empty promises. “The Republican line is that the overwhelming majority of blacks will vote for Obama because he is African American,” Jackson wrote. “I find this thinking extremely insulting as a black Republican. The reason the majority of blacks will vote for Obama is because Republicans have not given African Americans a reason to vote for Republicans or Romney.”
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