New GOP Site Launches to Negative Reviews

GOP.com, the official Web site of the Republican National Committee, relaunched Tuesday with a new design and a video introduction from Chairman Michael Steele. Against a backdrop of flaming red, alternating faces of Republican men and women make up the "O" in "GOP" in the site's logo. The logo also incorporates a number of iconic American heroes, including a significant number of African-Americans.

But the new site has met with a deluge of criticism as visitors and bloggers discovered technical bugs, missing content, and a pointed inclusion of multiethnic "faces." Many had difficulty loading the site on Tuesday, and ones who did see it immediately noticed omissions. Politico's Ben Smith drew attention to the blank "Future Leaders" page, which was promptly filled in with a passage saying "you" are the future of the party. Democrats said the errors and lack of coherent message were ironically prophetic.

"The RNC was less-than-subtle about loading the website with black people; not only Steele, but many of the 'GOP faces,' including Jackie Robinson and Frederick Douglass," wrote Adam Fogel on The Palmetto Scoop. "All of this despite the fact that blacks make up roughly 2 percent of the Republican Party."

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder compiled a list of 10 reasons the "GOP website relaunch is fizzlin'," including the fact that the site was down during the RNC's celebratory conference calling announcing its arrival, and that it is not tied to a major message campaign. "It portrays itself as something it's not: diverse and ready to embrace new ideas," Ambinder wrote. "That may be what the party leadership aspires to, but, at least when it comes to diversity, a few pictures of Hispanics and African Americans doesn't make up for ... well, the history of the party."