Quick Note: Republicans Really Not That Interested in Minority Outreach After All

The Conservative Political Action Conference began on Thursday, one of the Republican Party's premier annual events.  One of the presentations was a panel targeting the GOP's need to reach out to minorities.  The panel consisted of Republican strategists Jason Roe, Elroy Sailor and Robert Woodson along with Ed Gillespie, Republican candidate for the Virginia Senate.  

As reported by Brookings Institute's John Hudak, the panel discussed Republican attempts to reach minority voters, pointed out their numerous failures and stated, in clear terms, how the party must do better. 

With all the lip service being given by Republican leadership about this very topic, it was expected that the presentation would be well attended and it was scheduled into a large ballroom to reflect that expectation. This, however, is what the ballroom looked like 10 minutes after the panel had begun their discussion:

It appears that CPAC believes minority outreach is an important issue, but Republican politicians themselves don't think the subject is worth their time.  The talk of Republican minority outreach seems to be garnering the same energy as the Republican effort to appeal to women voters--they'll talk about us, but they don't really want to hear about us...or from us.