The election of a black President induced Republicans to throw gasoline on the racist kindling they've nurtured for decades. When democrats became the party of equal rights for blacks in the mid-sixties, racists sought a new home. They found it with Republicans.

This was carefully designed to yank the albatross of race off the Tea Party and the GOP's back. But, that hardly meant that race was off the GOP table as a major political weapon in the GOP's political attack arsenal.