As if the political graveyard weren't replete enough with the corpses of young Facebook noobs, there's one more cautionary tale to add to the pile: whatever you do don't do what Audra Shay, the newly-elected national chairwoman of the Young Republicans, did.

The complaint that 38-year-olds aren't young notwithstanding (Ed: thank goodness we don't have anyone trying to pretend 30-somethings are CFers - whoops!), it's pretty damn stupid of anyone with a pretence to political office to even look like they're condoning racism. Or homophobia or sexism, for that matter.

The comments may have been taken out of context, and the claim to privacy may be fair, but everyone has to agree: giving the media nothing to run is better than giving them a 'conservative is racist' story. Despite the protestations that the media are biased: yes, the media are biased, but they're still the media. Shay may have won, but, with the glare of publicity on her, that'll be the last election she'll ever win.

Racism is an accusation that dogs conservatives: one that is sometimes justified, and one that we have to shake off. If you want to condone racism, you can do it in private. But don't expect your privacy to be respected, don't expect your opponents to have any humour about it, and don't expect people that aren't racist to stand by you.