I'm going to do something stupid. Give the GOP the benefit of the doubt on Michael Steele

[AllentownJake]

By giving them the benefit of the doubt I'm going to say of all the candidates that declared for chairman Michael Steele was their best choice of their choices of which I find all disgusting because of their idealogical views.

Mike Duncan - Was the chairman during their last two disastrous election cycles. The fact that the guy had any support amazes me.

Chip Saltzman - Got caught distributing racist songs about Latinos and the President. Picking him would be an absolute outrage and single their desire to stay the party of rich white men.

Ken Blackwell - Is an extreme conservative. He doesn't have a good TV prescence and has a history of election lawsuits and probably helped George W. Bush steal an election in 2004. He would be a lightning rod. He also got his ass kicked against Strickland by 24% of the vote in 2006. Too many ties to Bush.

Saul Anzius - Has no record of success in Michigan politics except one state senate race. McCain pulled out of Michigan first and part of his reasoning was the sad shape of the Michigan GOP.

Katon Dawson is the South Carolina GOP Chairman. If you can't win a statewide race in South Carolina with an R after your name you've got issues. Running a party that is losing ground nationally probably isn't the place for a guy who is used to running a party where the primary is the general election since democrats have so much trouble in South Carolina.

Which leaves you with Michael Steele he was a party chairman and a Lt. Govenor in a solidly blue state. He's made appearences on Real Time with Bill Mahr and the Colbert report which shows he can at least attempt to laugh at himself. He's an ok speaker. He lost a Senate Race but he really has no giant controversy in his background. Race aside Michael Steele out of the people running was probably the best person for the job. Which according to MLK jr is part of his dream. Michael Steele really was the best of the 5 candidates and he won.


The real story however is no heavy weights or up and coming stars stepped up to run for chairman. No former Govenors, No former Senators, No former Presidential Candidates. Newt Gingrich didn't run, nor did Mitt Romeny, Mike Huckabee or anyone with a national name. Former GOP Govenors or Govenors who will be leaving office in 2010 also chose to sit this out. Nobody of any stature wants to tie themselves to this losing party right now or wants to spend the time and energy trying to right the ship.

So I'll give the GOP the benefit of the doubt which is something I rarely do. Of the choices they had for chairman Michael Steele was their best and I don't think he's a gimick, I think out of 5 men he was the best person they had for the job and I will do a rare thing and congratulate them for taking a step in the right direction by moving forward and not letting a candidates race be the deciding factor.

[cooolandrew]

1. Anyway at least their trying, just if they could try more in congress I'd probably happy to give >

them at least some credit.

[AllentownJake]

2. President Obama

Marks the end of being able to win elections nationally using African Americans as a wedge issue. Its a good thing for the country.

Rush Limbaugh is a millstone around their neck right now and if most in the Republican leadership could make him disapear and replace him with someone younger who speaks to a new generation they would. However right now they need that base of racist middle age white men in lower to middle management and sales to stand a chance in any election and they are walking a tight rope to try to reform the image of the party and keep the Rush listeners, evangelicals, and business interest together. They are trying to prevent the entire party from imploding right now and keep the coalition together.

[struggle4progress]

3. Consider this:

This is the sleazy person Michael Steele
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8156044

[AllentownJake]

4. He's a republican

So I'm not exactly surprised. Any guy who has moved far enough in that party to run for chairman has got to be a lying stealing cheating fucktard its one of the things the party stands for.

However, out of the pool of 5 fucktards race aside...he was the best choice for them as a spokes person on TV and to try to come up with some strategies.

[Marsala]

5. McCain was their best possible nominee in 2008, though

Being the best out of a terrible pool isn't much of an accomplishment.

[AllentownJake]

10. Yep

Being the best out of a pool of shit isn't necessarily an accomplishment.

[shireen]

6. i think you're right

Steele was the best candidate because he's not done anything outrageous. During the senate campaign, he never even used the "R" word!

So we have a "best" candidate defined by what he did not do, when compared with the others who ran. This best candidate is mediocre at best, safe and uncontroversial. As an added bonus, he's African American.

[AllentownJake]

8. I believe he would have won

If he was a white man or woman simply based on the biographies of the candidates.

[shireen]

13. that's true,

and he still would have been mediocre. :)

[NoQuarter]

7. Steele is a beard,

a willing beard for the GOP.

[AllentownJake]

9. I think on biographies he would have won if he was white, Latino, or a woman

They really had a pool of bad candidates and mediocre beats absolutely shitty.

[sohndrsmith]

11. I think you've one-upped them. It took them six votes to give him

the benefit of the doubt. I like your approach a lot better. : )

It's easy to consider him a gimmick, because there is historical precedence that political gimmicks are used frequently - and are even effective sometimes. I think Palin was a gimmick, personally.

Quite honestly, even if he was chosen for the wrong reason - and if he is more qualified than they were interested in - then this is a HUGE breakthrough, hopefully, for the party that seems to avoid diversity as if it's some sort of bug that will sting them.

We'd all be better off if the GOP regrouped itself into a better, smarter, more inclusive party. What they've been doing has failed them and caused everyone more grief than they should get away with - in terms of ideology (if such ideology was reflected in the voices and statements in the last election, politicians and citizens both. They didn't show their best selves too much, it seemed. Doesn't mean they can't acknowledge that and learn from it. I hope to heck they do...)

I don't know much about Mr. Steele to say anything valid about him, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt while I learn more about him, too.

Thanks for some sane reasoning... : )

[obiwan]

12. That's a safe bet. Watch the GOP from a distance.

Don't interfere because it's their party. Watch them destroy themselves without any outside assistance (from a safe distance, of course.) Let them discover that sociopathy is not good policy.


FUN FUN FUN!!!!!

[old mark]

14. I thnk he is the candidate of the mainstream. The very Right/"Religious"

crowd won't be very happy with him, and the Pubs won't be able to keep the moderates and the extremeists together. They will split into 2 or more parties pretty soon.

Steele was the only rational choice, but we are talking Publicans and "rational" don't count for much over the last few decades. The moderates are trying to pick up the broken pieces.


mark

[jenmito]

15. Someone on MSNBC said yesterday that he won by default-that they

COULDN'T vote for the guy who just quit the all-white country club or that's all the media would be talking about.

I was just reading the freepers' posts and it's starting to dawn on them that he was only picked because he's Black-to counter Obama. He's pro-affirmative action, soft on the 2nd amendment, and he's just too moderate to represent their "values."