Herman Cain has said his popularity in Republican primary polls -- he's doing better than Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum -- proves the Tea Party isn't racist. But that doesn't mean his supporters avoid the issue of race altogether, because his communications director, Ellen Carmichael, tweeted Friday, "People are calling & asking where they can purchase their 'Honkies for Herman' and 'Crackers for Cain' bumper stickers. We don't make those."
Where could those calls be coming from? Honkies for Herman is a real website. The domain was registered in March by a Tom Wilson of New Jersey. The about section explains:
Since racism, race bating, and classism are staples of leftist politics, we have decided to proudly be Honkies For Herman as a way of taking the issue away from the left. The left are the racists, not conservatives. We are also Honkies For Herman because we don’t believe in a white America, black America, hispanic America, etc. We believe in Americans period, and not some leftist ideology of a segmented America. The content of one's character and ability is paramount.
Nexis shows just a single mention of the group, from New Hampshire's Concord Monitor on April 28. A "Crackers for Cain" bumper sticker was spotted in July, but the meme seems to have gotten a huge boost when it was noticed by Atlanta conservative talk radio host Neal Boortz.
Update: Talk radio host Phil Valentine writes in to say he came up with the idea. Valentine says, "Herman is a friend of mine and a fellow talk show host. When I first told him about it he thought it was hilarious." So he bought HonkiesforHerman.com in January. As for the .us competitor, "We have a lot of listeners across the country and apparently one of them heard us talking about it and acted on it, which is fine."
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Elspeth Reeve
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