Pennsylvania GOP Chair Compares Obama Supporter To Someone Who Is “Mentally Retarded”
Jim Roddey, the GOP chair of Allegheny County in Pennsylvania and a former county executive, got a decent level of support for comparing a supporter of President Obama to a person who is “mentally retarded”.
Roddey made the comment at an election night party being thrown for State Representative Randy Vulakovich. Roddey took to the stage and in a fiery speech told a few hundred Republican activists that in their district Vulakovich had defeated his Democratic challenger by more than 50 points.
Roddey then took the speech in a very negative direction according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He said,
“There was a disappointment tonight. I was very embarrassed. I was in this parking lot and there was a man looking for a space to park, and I found a space for him. And I felt badly — he looked like he was sort of in distress. And I said, ‘Sir, here’s a place.’ And he said, ‘That’s a handicapped space.’ I said, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry, I saw that Obama sticker and I thought you were mentally retarded.'”
The Post said that the whole crowd erupted with laughter and clapped at the horribly insensitive joke.
Roddey has been a longtime supporter of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Roddey also helped write the Pennsylvania Voter ID Law. The Pennsylvania Law, which states that a person who wants to vote must bring a photo ID to the polling station with him was bragged about by local Republicans in Pennsylvania as boosting Mitt Romney’s chances of winning the State.
Roddey has long supported presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney in the presidential race, as well as the Pennsylvania voter ID law that another Republicans bragged will boost the former Massachusetts governor’s prospects in the battleground state.
