Rush Limbaugh: Herman Cain more 'authentically black' than Obama

TheGrio REPORTS -- Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh on Monday said that if the former Godfather's Pizza CEO were to win the Republican nomination, and then go on to be elected president, "Herman Cain could be our first authentically black president..."

TheGrio Staff

Sep 26, 2011

Fresh off his surprise victory in the Florida Republican Party’s “Presidency 5” straw poll, Herman Cain took a media victory lap Monday.

But one Cain cheerleader offered his support in controversial form.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show Monday that if the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO were to win the Republican nomination, and then go on to be elected president, “Herman Cain could be our first authentically black president.”

“Stop and think about that,” Limbaugh said.

One caller, “Kevin,” did “stop and think about it,” and questioned Limbaugh about the statement, producing the exchange below, from the transcript posted one the radio host’s website:

RUSH: Kevin in Oklahoma City, great to have you on the program, Kevin. Welcome.

CALLER: Hey, how you doing? I’m a first-time caller from Oklahoma City.

RUSH: Thank you, sir.

CALLER: You said earlier that if Herman Cain is elected that he would be the first black president. What do you mean by that?

RUSH: I said first authentically black president.

CALLER: What does that mean?

RUSH: Well, during the campaign of 2008 there were a number of liberal newspaper columnists, and even Reverend Sharpton who were challenging Barack Obama’s authenticity, that he wasn’t an authentic black because he didn’t have any family history traced to slavery, that his mother was white —

CALLER: Yeah.

RUSH: — father from Kenya, you know, was not really down for the struggle. But it was them who said that. Now, I’m simply bouncing off of them. I never get into debates over who’s an authentic black and who isn’t. It’s the left that does that, it’s the Democrat Party and their media that does that, but bouncing off what they said, Herman Cain would be more authentically black to me than Obama is.

CALLER: Oh. So it’s what they say and then you’re just repeating —

RUSH: Yeah, I’m just bouncing off of it.

Later, Limbaugh deployed his African-American “Official Obama Criticizer,” the self-described ”’certified black enough’ to criticize with 100% pure organic slave blood in the mix’ call screener nicknamed Bo Snerdly (real name James Golden), to hit the president for his fiery speech to the Congressional Black Caucus on Saturday. Among “Snerdly’s” critiques:

There was no other audience who rates this unseemly presidential lecture from Barack Obama, and yet the push-back from the CBC has been tame…

Golden then launched into an Ebonics-laden tirade, parodying black vernacular to chide the president for telling black lawmakers to “quit complaining” and “march” with him to push for passage of a jobs bill. Said Golden, as Snerdly:

Stop crying, stop complain, stop grumbling”? Check this out. Do you go to the Hispanic audience Obama and tell ‘em to stop whining about jumping the fence, yo? No. Do you tell the Jew janitors, yo, to, you know, stifle it? No. The soccer moms? No. Your Wall Street posse? No.

And to ensure there’s no confusion about where Limbaugh and company stand on Cain’s candidacy, the Rush Limbaugh show’s website sports a graphic showing Herman Cain’s face superimposed over the White House, with the caption “down for the struggle.”