The Virginia Republican Party has asked a local GOP committee to remove offensive and racially charged Photoshopped posts of Barack Obama from their Facebook page.
The Mecklenburg County Republican Committee has myriad photos making fun of President Obama on their Facebook wall, but some are more offensive than others. One portrays Obama as a witch doctor and has been circulated as a favorite among tea party types for years. Others that the state GOP requested for removal depict Obama as a caveman and a thug. The photos put the committee in the spotlight this week after Virginia Senate GOP candidate George Allen—of "macaca" infamy—completed a campaign swing in the area.
On PoliticsNation Wednesday, Rev. Al Sharpton said the GOP was "reaching back into their bag of dirty tricks" to smear Obama. As Sharpton noted, Newt Gingrich said on Fox Tuesday night that Obama is "not a real president" and "a false president." Top Romney surrogate John Sununu, appearing on Fox earlier that night, said Obama is "absolutely lazy and detached from his job."
While the chair of the Virginia Republican party called the photos "offensive and tasteless," the Mecklenburg Committee chair said he was not ashamed. "Good God, you should have seen some of the images they did of George [W.] Bush," chair R. Wallace Hudson said. But as Guardian journalist Ana Marie Cox pointed out on PoliticsNation with Rev. Sharpton, those photos "did not have the racial resonance" that comes with these posts.
As of now, the witch doctor photo appears to be down from the Mecklenburg Committee's Facebook page, but the other images remain.
