Why Michael Steele Won't Be JM's Veep
Lots of buzz in the political ether today noting that former MD Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a 2006 candidate for U.S. Senate, accompanied John McCain to the NAACP convention in Cincinnati. Is it a sign, some are asking, that Steele's being considered for the veep spot?
While it's always dangerous to handicap the vice presidential search, I covered the 2006 Senate race in MD for The Baltimore Sun, and I can say with little hesitation that it's unlikely that Steele, now head of GOPAC, will wind up on the GOP ticket. Steele served one term as the state's LG. He's never won a race on his own, and his career has had several iterations.
Among Steele's professional twists and turns:
-- He entered the seminary, but left after 18 months.
-- After attending law school, he passed the PA bar and later sat for the MD bar, but failed.
-- Post law school, he was hired by the Washington office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, but failed to make partner after six years and left the firm.
-- He later worked for the Mills Corp., the developer of the Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, and left the company 18 months.
-- In 1998, Steele attempted to win the Republican nomination for MD comptroller. He finished third in the GOP primary.
-- He subsequently founded a business and consulting group that struggled financially. In 2001, two banks filed notices of intent to place liens on Steele's Largo townhouse. He later cleared his debts.
-- Steele ultimately took over the MD GOP. In 2002, while running for LG with gube candidate Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., the party paid Steele, whose business was struggling, $5,000 per month -- money stipulated as a fee for strategic consulting services.
-- Steele's 2006 Senate bid was crafted largely around the LG's affable personality and is most remembered for a series of TV ads noting that the Democrats would criticize the GOPer -- they'd even say he doesn't like puppies. He was defeated by then Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin.
That's just the chronology. Steele was also caught during the 2002 campaign noting inaccurately that his stepfather was Robert Kennedy's driver, a point corrected by Kennedy's daughter, former MD Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
There's more, of course, including Steele's relationships with his onetime brother-in-law, the boxer Mike Tyson, and Don King, the boxing promoter who appeared on the campaign trail with Steele in 2006. But, for now, that seems enough to make the broader point. Opposition researchers would have a field day with a Steele pick.
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
Are you kidding Jen?
Based on that track record, he is the PERFECT candidate for Bush IV.
GHWB - it's the economy, stupid
GWB - failure at everything he's ever done
McSame - shot down 5 times, captured by the enemy, bankrolled by beer heiress without any serious political competition, sucks up to Bush/neocons, etc
Steele - just plain sucks
Perfect. Go Mike! Steele VP!
I heard on the radio today that Steele was looking like a lock and I thought, let's see, 94% of blacks are backing O'Carter. I'm thinking with the exception of Clarance Thomas and Thomas Sowell the other six percent are not backing MCain, but just haven't moved to O'Carter yet. Steele couldn't even carry Maryland. To quote Bill Murray in Scrooged, "Do I have to think of everything?" Let's see, women are still mad at O"Carter. Why not...a women...say the Governor of....Alaaska? I guess, what do you expect from this brain trust. I have not seen one McCain yard sign or bumper sticker here in Flyoverland, not one.
>>>women are still mad at O"Carter
Except, fly, gimme a break, that's not even REMOTELY true. Actually the opposite is true.
"""women support him 55 - 36 percent.""" Quinnipiac 7/15
"""the Democrat leads by 15 points among women (54 percent to 39 percent).""" Washington Post-ABC News 7/16
You know better than to get caught in a blatant lie, bud. Do your homework or you look like one of the neocon cheerleaders on here. C'mon fly. You're like my last hope for the GOP. Let's stick to the reality-based community (aka facts).
Great Scrooged quote tho :)
And yes, to your point:
"""The Democrat gets 44 percent to the Republican's 47 percent in red states""" Quinnipiac 7/15
Yes, that is just about within the +/- 2.4% margin of error... almost a dead heat... Barack Obama in 2004 RED STATES.
Bring on the yard signs and bumper stickers! As it sinks in that O'Bama! is an accident looking for a place to happen, anyone with a wit of sense will pray that McCain can overcome the kool-aid drinkers.
Young people: Your parents and grandparents have already screwed you by burying you in debt, and O'Bama! will add more and more: Until three weeks ago, every single problem he identified (literally) had a government solution of one kind or another. How has civilization survived so long without an all-powerful government to solve all of our problems?
The answer is that the only way it CAN survive is if all-powerful government is absent. When government becomes the center of gravity in a society, dictatorship usually follows. Sometimes the government becomes dictatorial, sometimes it is so incompetent that it is overthrown by a dictator.
Either way - leave well enough alone. The country has some problems, but there is scant evidence that government solves many problems.
Our problems are in no small part the fault of big goverment; monolithic government is not the answer.
Greg Buls
Las Vegas, NV
E,
I am not saying women all hate the O, but there is a bigger percentage of potential women voters who might switch than blacks due to the Hillary factor. I have very little confidence that our side can think past the "they've got a black guy, let's get us one, too" mentality. McCain is sending out a lot of direct mail, but I see few boots on the ground. I never respond to direct mail as those fund raising groups take a spiff off the top. I donate directly. As you know, I can't stand people who profit from politics. If you believe, you ought to volunteer. I do not apologize to those on either side who see it as a career.
>>>there is a bigger percentage of potential women voters who might switch than blacks due to the Hillary factor
And all I'M saying is that you can't say something definitive like that, or what you said before and even other times, without a lick of proof. At LEAST qualify it with "I think"... Welcome to the Reality-based Community.
>>>I can't stand people who profit from politics
Ha. Do you realize how ironic that sounds coming from someone in the GOP? Honestly, you are a smart, fair guy. Can you NOT see what is right in front of you? If that statement is true then you'd have to disown your whole party, fly.
Please don't tell anyone, but the only time I ever ran for office (I was 21) I ran as a Dem--I lost by two votes. My grandfather was a founding member of the Progressive Mine Workers. In his home county in the 20's and 30's the socialists got more votes than the dems. I am self made, not a trust fund baby. I am all for helping people, but not for doping them on the public dole. A very smart manager of one of the country's largest mutual funds told me the week before Bill F. Clinton took office that you can make just as much money with Dems in power as GOP's. You just need a lot more lawyers.
While I agree I just made up that comment, I think common sense says its true. 94% of blacks are voting for Obama. I think it will be even higher than that. I think the polls are not accurate this time because of the Bradley effect. I just don't know which way they are off. I am only saying it just makes common sense that more women would possibly vote for McCain than blacks as a group. So, if you were pandering to one group or the other, which one would give you the greater shot? I'm personally into substance, not flavors of people. My favorite color is green.
>>>A very smart manager of one of the country's largest mutual funds told me the week before Bill F. Clinton took office that you can make just as much money with Dems in power as GOP's. You just need a lot more lawyers.
First of all, it is Bill J. Clinton. But yes, anyone who has been alive the last 30+ years should be able to acknowledge that the economy ALWAYS fairs better under Democrats. Reagan, inflation. GHWB, recession. Clinton, surplus, jobs, prosperity, progress. GWB, fiery disaster. You can make money in America. Period. That is the American Dream. Picking yourself up by your bootstraps. Upward mobility. Under the GOP that is wedged out to being almost ABSENT from our life, as the GOP policies are DESIGNED and orchestrated to make the rich richer and poor and middle class poorer. That is the entire game right there. SOCIALISM, your/GOP's favorite nasty label is about EQUAL distribution of wealth. Nobody in their right mind is for that. Democracy under Democratic Leadership is about a vibrant middle class, upward mobility, and a humanitarian safety net for those least among us, all surrounding the engine of a fair, regulated, free market. GOP policies do not want a fair, regulated free market. They want a FIXED, decentralized deregulated market. The GOP economic concept yields something literally much closer to Aristocracy, Corporatocracy (aka Fascism) than any thing like the kind of democratic system of government that our founders created 200-some years ago.
I think you're right about Obama's fortunes with blacks vs women. But the point I was making is that you can state an opinion and/or you can state a fact. But if you state an opinion AS fact with nothing to back it up... Then you are a neocon. You are NOT a neocon. So cut it out. ;)
Green is by far the best color.
First of all, it is Bill J. Clinton not Bill F. Clinton
You have your middle name for him and I have mine.....