Link: Conservatives are incensed on behalf of black people

Appearing on Fox and Friends this morning, Dana Perino, the former spokeswoman for George W. Bush, expressed dismay that, at the annual Gridiron Dinner this weekend, President Obama used his traditional comedy routine to make fun of House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) tan.

She said: “They keep going back to the same well and making fun of John Boehner’s skin color. Really? This White House of all White Houses?”

There seems to have been a spike in this sort of conservative posturing lately — what, with pro-life groups guilt-tripping minority groups into opposing abortion rights, and Rick Santorum specifically calling out President Obama for being simultaneous black and pro-choice.

What’s remarkable, of course, is that conservative activists and talking heads consider this black outreach. Dana Perino seems to truly believe that she has made some salient point (for her team, of course) about race and discourse in the United States, or something — all while we proceed to page 394 of a national conversation about how the president of the United States’ surname and skin tone make him “Other.”

Anyway, as far as the broader conservative efforts to blend black and conservative narratives — wielding all the subtlety of an actual blender — are concerned, they seem decidedly less “we care about you and your priorities,” more “you are clearly incapable of recognizing your natural self interests,” with an arrogant corollary: “We know what your self interests are.”

And I thought Michael Steele was patronizing.