Bill O’Reilly was up in arms that Nancy Pelosi and an MSNBC commenter accused Mitt Romney of deliberately trying to get booed when he spoke to the NAACP convention earlier this week. Supposedly, it was Romney's secret plan to use his victimhood as a way of boosting his cred to racist conservatives. But instead of trying to disprove it, O'Reilly debated – raged against, really – Hilary Shelton, the Washington Bureau Director of the NAACP. And guess what? O’Reilly suggested that the real racial intolerance was coming from the NAACP.

Speaking of Pelosi’s accusation, O’Reilly said, “In a fair country – that innuendo absolutely unacceptable.”

Shelton said, “You can’t dismiss” the theory. “Quite frankly, the way that Mitt Romney came to the NAACP was clearly not to garner support. If you have a better idea, quite frankly – keep in mind the NAACP’s non-partisan and we always invite candidates from at least both parties… but if you want to garner support, at least meet people where they’re at.”  To illustrate Romney’s lack of outreach, Shelton said many found it “quite offensive” that Romney called the Affordable Care Act “ObamaCare” as well as “the manner in which he presented” his desire to repeal it. “Mr. Romney said he would repeal that to save money but he didn’t talk about what he would replace it with to save lives.” So, Shelton said, you have to wonder why he put himself forth in that way.

O’Reilly interrupted. “I don’t think anyone would object to anyone disagreeing with the governor about the repealing of ObamaCare.” But he went on to complain that John McCain “got jazzed” by the NAACP when he spoke at their convention in 2008.

Shelton disagreed. The record indicates Shelton is correct.  You can read the full transcript or watch the full speech and let me know if I’m wrong. Shelton also noted that George W. Bush spoke when he was a candidate and that neither got treated disrespectfully.

That’s when O’Reilly turned mean. “They got jazzed by your crew and you know it!”

When he was a presidential candidate, Bush 43 spoke to the NAACP in 2000 and seems to have been treated respectfully. He declined to speak to the NAACP in 2004. But he was booed in 2006 (not a year he was running for anything) when he brought up charter schools and the war in Iraq. However, as far as treating Republican candidates goes, Shelton was correct. Adam Serwer, writing in Mother Jones, noted, “Prior to that, you have to go back about twenty years of white guys not getting booed to 1983, when then-Vice President George H.W. Bush was booed because of his defense of the Reagan administration’s civil rights record. Even then, ABC News describes him as being ‘well received’ when he returned as a presidential candidate in 1988.”

It’s understandable and forgiveable that O’Reilly got mixed up but there’s really no excuse for his attacking Shelton as a liar – especially when Shelton was the one telling the truth.“I hope you’ll go back (and check),” Shelton said.

I hope he’s not holding his breath. “I remember covering it,” O’Reilly said, implying that he saw no need.

Ironically, it was O'Reilly now displaying a racial chip on his shoulder. “Mitt Romney gave the same speech that he gives everywhere… Are you gonna sit there and tell me that he should have pandered to your audience and not given that speech?”

“Pandering is not the word,” Shelton said. “You speak to the audience that’s in front of you. …He was not interested in reaching our audience.”"

It's hard to imagine O'Reilly - or even Romney who, by the way, said he expected to get booed - wouldn't know that politicians always, or almost always, tweak their remarks for the particular crowd they're facing. It says a lot about O'Reilly's own racial hostility to insist that Romney treat a crowd of African Americans as if they’re the same as the other audiences at Romney speeches.

Unfortunately, that line of argument was discontinued and the segment devolved further as O’Reilly and Shelton vociferously disagreed over what Romney did or didn’t say about improving education. Once again, O’Reilly was oafish and bullying. “I’m gonna go back 30 seconds and tell the audience that you basically did not tell the truth on this broadcast!” he said accusingly to Shelton. Shelton, on the other hand, remained polite and respectful throughout. Later, as the segment began to close, O’Reilly jabbed his finger and yelled, “You want a politician to pander to your crew! That’s what you want! You don’t want him to tell the truth, you want him to pander… You want him to kiss your butts!”

I don’t know if Romney deliberately got himself booed at the NAACP or was just terribly tone deaf (for the record, I tend to think the latter). But one thing is indisputable: He didn’t do himself any favors with African Americans with his speech to the NAACP and O’Reilly didn’t do him any favors with the black community in this segment, either.