Racist or "Internet Joke"?

Orange County's (California) OC Weekly obtained and published this photograph sent in an email by Marilyn Davenport, a member of the Southern California Tea Pary and Orange County Republican Party. This photograph was shown under "Now you know why no birth certificate", insinuating President Obama was born to a family of apes.

Reached by telephone and asked if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, "Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people--mostly people I didn't think would be upset by it."

This is the same county and group that emailed the following image, specifically Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose who later apologized.

To their limited credit, OC Weekly reported that not all Republicans, particularly the Republican leadership, was not as amused. I claim limited credit because they are the GOP county leadership which, I'm sure - I hope - prefer not to be embarrassed by another incident so disgusting. To read the original article and their continuous updates, go to OC Weekly.

So, racist or 'Internet joke'? In my personal opinion, every sentence of Ms. Davenport's initial response to The Weekly is so incredibly transparent to anyone who has ever examined comments by someone accused of being racist. It is almost a mantra: I was joking. I'm not a racist. I have black friends. I said this in private to people I thought felt the same way. And, when exposed and all else fails under examination? Blame the 'liberal media', 'political correctness' or 'ACLU', or the most childish of all accuse the other party did it too.

What is your opinion? Or, ask yourself, how does this make me feel?