Yeah, I think most people are generally looking at this from a pretty moderate position. The chimp thing alone, unless you are a full on left-wing loony, doesn't necessarily come off as racist. As plenty of us have said, it is a political meme used by both sides to present their opposition as a doofus or lacking in character/ability. That said, this email doesn't reside in a vacuum. Her defense of other people's emails depicting such things as the White House watermelon patch lends credence to the speculation of racist motive. As such, it isn't so much her intent (which may not have been racist at all) as it is the reception of the email.
Personally, while I do defend the right of people to portray another as a chimp regardless of race when speaking to their lack of character or ability, I don't think that was necessarily the case with this woman. But, I think we can generally all agree that this woman is either stupid, racist, or both.
As for defenders, I'm sure they are out there and are probably right-wing nutters who spread emails about the White House watermelon patch and tell jokes about Obama health initiatives being a way for them to have more fried chicken for themselves. I deal with these people. I know they are out there. But, on the flip side, I don't think it is right to use them as the poster boys of this movement any more or less than using a bunch of left wing nutters as the poster boys for the left.
Reality: there are nutters. Reality: they are few and on both sides. Reality: the media really likes to try and blow smoke up our asses about their prevalence and use them to fearmonger in order to discredit that which they do not agree with.
