RNC chair (Michael Steele): Media didn't vet Obama because of race

The Hill ^ | 5/22/09 | Reid Wilson

[NormsRevenge]

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Friday that President Obama has not been vetted thanks to a complicit media that wanted to see a black man become president.

Serving as a guest host for conservative radio personality Bill Bennett, Steele, who is also African-American, said Obama's political philosophy and principles remain largely unknown.

"He was not vetted, folks," Steele said. "He was not vetted because the press fell in love with the black man running for the office.

" 'Oh, gee, wouldn't it be neat to do that? Gee, wouldn't it make all of our liberal guilt just go away? We can continue to ride around in our limousines and feel so lucky to live in an America with a black president,' " Steele said, mocking what he sees as a biased media.

"OK, that's wonderful, great scenario, nice backdrop," the chairman continued. "But what does he stand for? What does he believe?"

Steele went on to suggest the media should have examined the influence the Rev. Jeremiah Wright had on Obama.

Steele has been on the receiving end of similar suggestions — that he has advanced up the political ladder because of race. Having started off as chairman of the Prince George's County Republican Party and the Maryland Republican Party, then serving as lieutenant governor of Maryland, Steele became a frequent guest on cable news channels and a repeat speaker at Republican National Conventions in 2004 and 2008.

When he ran for chairman of the national committee, Steele frequently pledged to reach out to minority voters who have largely abandoned the GOP in recent years. And when the race came down to a battle between Steele and former South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, who once belonged to an all-white country club, several RNC members cast votes for Steele with racial diversity in mind.

Steele has repeatedly used language apparently aimed at wooing younger black voters, calling the stimulus package passed in February "bling bling" and referring to a joke Obama made — a joke in which Obama ribbed the RNC chairman for his supposedly urban attitude — as "just good love between two brothers."

The liberal Think Progress blog posted a 2005 interview between Steele and C-SPAN host Brian Lamb in which Steele pushed back against claims made by the Baltimore Sun that all he brought to the gubernatorial ticket was the color of his skin.

Steele called the claim, made in an editorial when he and ex-Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) ran together in 2002, "pure ignorance," adding that he had been the victim of racist treatment.

Calls and e-mails to the RNC press department were not immediately returned late Friday afternoon.

[KrisKrinkle]

“He was not vetted because the press fell in love with the black man running for the office.”

I think if he'd been a Republican we'd have known everything they could find out plus some stuff that wasn't true.

[GOPsterinMA]

Agreed! Remember the McCain/Cuda campaign stop in Wisconsin, I think, where the folks were livid and McCain said there was no reason to be afraid of Barry?

Also, the other campaign stop where the dud was yelling at McCain to essentially do something and fight back?

[GOPsterinMA]

“dud” should be “dude”

[tioga]

in high school I had a political science teacher who dreamed of seeing the first black president......he got us all to go hear julian bond speak and he thought he would be the one...rme....the indoctrination camps, ie public schools, have been working to this goal for years.

[maica]

Steele knows that for sure. He ran for Senate for Maryland, and was defeated by a short, white, Jewish, career democrat politician.

So much for the “brothers and sisters” voting for Steele. They voted party over color.

[frankenMonkey]

Here’s a thought -—
I don’t give a sh*t about what’s past, Steele’s job should be to focus on the winable 2010 House and Senate seats, get organized, get boots on the ground, and get going. Nothing succeeds like success!

[Winstons Julia]

Right.

Not only was he not vetted, the NYT buried that story that’s coming to haunt us ALL now.

[digger48]

I think if he'd been a Republican we'd have known everything they could find out plus some stuff that wasn't true.

didn't Sarah Palin have to pay an overdue book fee at the library when she was 12? Certainly NOT Presidential material there..... nosir.

[cripplecreek]

The GOP isn’t going to focus on winning. Hell they won’t even make a peep about the ongoing massive fraud that is going to fund ACORN for decades to come.

[stripes1776]

Well, the truth is refreshing; even from Michael Steele; who can share some truth about Obama; that few in our Party can. . .or would; or will. . .Hope he has an audience.

Only Steele can say this because he is black. If a white person said this, it would be labeled intolerance and racism. The media is whore.

[Question_Assumptions]

How many days until Steele apologized for this comment, too? That seems to be his M.O.

[Kevmo]

” ‘Oh, gee, wouldn’t it be neat to do that? Gee, wouldn’t it make all of our liberal guilt just go away? We can continue to ride around in our limousines and feel so lucky to live in an America with a black president,’
***I can’t remember which FReeper said it, that zer0bama was selling absolution — at a cost of one vote.

[nathanbedford]

It is ironic that it was another black man named Steele, Shelby Steele, did speak out before the election and articulated the mass psychosis that was overwhelming America and especially the media. Steele appeared on C-SPAN and he wrote a book unfortunately subtitled something to the effect of why Obama cannot win. Nevertheless, he was on target; the black American did speak out but no one listened. They simply would not hear.

Indeed, the psychosis which impelled Barak Obama into office was grounded on a deal which precluded any scrutiny by the media.

I posted on this matter of number of times citing Shelby Steele before the election but I cannot find those posts. Here is an amalgam of two such posts made shortly after the election:

Shelby Steele identified the psychology which led to Obama's election. Essentially, Obama personified expiation for centuries of slavery and segregation. He struck an implicit deal with white America. He would not rub white America's nose in its original sin of slavery and segregation and white America would accept the proffered expiation simply by voting for him. The deal carried through the election because Obama persisted in being what conservatives complain of: an empty suit. So long as Obama kept his part of the deal and did nothing flamboyant (think of Reverend Al Sharpton), white America kept its part of the deal and Obama was elected. White America's part of the deal was the reciprocal of Obama's forbearance from behaving "black" by acting the empty suit. White America would never suggest that the emperor had no clothes and, of course, would vote its myopia.

It was Shelby Steele who articulated early in the campaign the mass psychosis which had overtaken America resembling in its effect if not not its origins the mass psychosis which inhabited Great Britain on the death of Diana. People simply put aside their powers of reason. Steele tells us why: Obama was the white black candidate who was not threatening, not Jesse Jackson or Reverend Sharpton, who assuaged white guilt. So long as Obama kept his half of the tacit agreement with the white world to be non-accusatory of whites for their guilt for slavery and Jim Crow, the whites' half of the deal was to vote for the first black president.

We conservatives complained that Obama was an empty suit but he won precisely because he was an empty suit. So long as Obama stayed in character and played his assigned role, he was impervious to scandal or reality. If he stepped out of character, if he filled the suit with a real person making real policy decisions, he would become a black black candidate and break the deal.

So long as Obama stayed in character, America would elect a Manchurian Marxist.

[thatdewd]

Actually, the media loved Obama for his other color--- Red.

AMEN!!!

[thatdewd]

Name the last democratic candidate that was vetted. Hell, none were. Not one.

Well, maybe Wendell Wilke, oh, wait, he was a Republican...you're right!!!!

[gidget7]

BINGO! Not one “R” stood up and questioned his qualifications, OR his beliefs/positions. And they should have. Heck, few of them will stand up against him even now. While he is trashing our country, and sending us back to the stone age.

[madamemayhem]

unsettling hell. i find it deeply disturbing.

[ShellieGOP]

Remember when Rush was vilified and fired from ESPN when he said the very same thing about that black quarterback whose name escapes me right now...

[newfreep]

Who’s the guy in the photo (besides being a commie worshipper)?

[SMM48]

Serving as a guest host for conservative radio personality Bill Bennett, ..

SERVING AS GUEST HOST? WTF! As RNC Chair, I would he had more important business to take care of. The whole political system is nothing but a friggin circus on both sides.