GOP Awakens the Sleeping Black Giant

They thought the base wouldn't turn out for Obama. When will the miscalculations end?

Posted: 11/09/2012 12:05 PM EST
GOP Awakens the Sleeping Black Giant

(The Root) -- In Republicans' burning zeal to deny America's first black president a second term, the GOP's tactics and their unintended consequences ensured that Barack Obama would have four more years.

GOP legislators and politicians offended African Americans. Offended women. Offended Hispanics. Offended gays. Apparently only straight, white Christian men were off-limits.

Their never-ending, flagrant disrespect of Obama, their racist dog whistling about the food stamp president and their systematic attempt to suppress the vote awoke the sleeping black giant. There was a serious threat that a mild case of black indifference was setting in, until the Republican schemes to discourage and dampen certain voter participation became evident, morphing the presidential election into a 2012 civil rights movement.

There was also Mitt Romney's post-NAACP speech to an all-white audience. After his appearance earlier in the day at the historic civil rights group's national convention, where he had been booed for promising to end Obamacare, the quarter-billionaire responded later to a group of donors in Hamilton, Mont.: "If you're looking for free stuff you don't have to pay for? Vote for the other guy; that's what he's all about, OK? That's not, that's not what I'm about."

More than half the electorate voted for the other guy. In some instances, in record numbers.

Read the full story on


(Photo: Julie Denesha/Getty Images)

Videos You May Like

From Our Partners