‘Michael is new. He’s had a learning curve.” Katon Dawson, chairman of the South Carolina Republican party, rendered that judgment about Michael Steele, the chairman of the national party, last spring. Curt Anderson, one of Steele’s top advisers, agreed, writing in Politico that Steele had “made some missteps in a few media appearances.” Steele himself agreed, pledging, “It won’t happen again.”
Steele had been elected in large part because Republicans saw him as a promising spokesman for the party. He had served as chairman of the Maryland Republican party and as lieutenant governor. Republicans around the country, knowing only that he was conservative and black, had rooted for him to win his campaign for the Senate in 2006. When he lost, nobody blamed him: It was a tough state in a rough year.
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