RNC Hopeful Sends Out 'Barack the Magic Negro'

A candidate for chair of the Republican National Committee has included a song called “Barack the Magic Negro” in a Christmas mailing, the Hill reports. Chip Saltsman said, “RNC members have the good humor and good sense to recognize” that the song, written by Paul Shanklin and sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was a joke. It first aired on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show almost two years ago.

The song takes its name from a Los Angeles Times op-ed that argued that Obama’s candidacy might assuage white guilt over the treatment of blacks in America. Saltsman said the song was obviously a dig at the piece’s author, David Ehrenstein, and not at Obama. Shanklin’s “songs for the Rush Limbaugh show are light-hearted political parodies,” he said. Also on the Christmas CD: “Wright Place, Wrong Pastor,” “Love Client #9,” and “The Star Spanglish Banner.” (More Barack Obama stories.)