Following Obama’s decidedly understated and eloquent remarks on race in the White House briefing room, the conservative commentariat exploded. The Daily Caller blared, “Obama Goes Full Race-Baiter,” and National Review dubbed the remarks “The Obama Administration’s Race-Baiting Campaign.” The Washington Times ran a column under the headline “Obama throws begging blacks a race bone with Trayvon Martin.”

Conservatives took to Twitter and the blogosphere to claim that Obama was “our first racist-in-chief” and was “stoking a race war.” Radio host Mark Levin trashed Obama’s attempt at putting the George Zimmerman verdict in perspective with the claim that the president is always “ripping at the fabric of the nation” and was a “disgrace.” At City Journal, Heather Mac Donald complained, “Obama has now put the presidential imprimatur on the crudest kind of racial victimology.”…

That Obama’s sincere and heartfelt remarks about what it’s like to be black in America were cast as some racist assault on the American people tells you everything you need to know about the impossibility the Republican Party faces in attracting black voters. Priebus should spend his money elsewhere.