An Honest Man?

The "candid" comments by Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele has some asking if he isn't "too honest". Here's an example in a post by Faiz Shakir on the site Think Progress:

In candid remarks made before a group of students at DePaul University, RNC Chairman Michael Steele said African-Americans “don’t have a reason” to vote for Republicans because “we haven’t done a very good job of giving you one.” The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Why should an African-American vote Republican?

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told 200 DePaul University students Tuesday night. […]

“For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

Of course, anytime Democrats make similar arguments, Steele is quick to accuse them of issuing “blind charges of racism, where none exist.” Steele himself claims not to “play the race card,” but in addition to his comments last night, he has said that he has a “slimmer margin for error” because of his race and that white Republicans are “scared” of him.

My comment would be that this remark isn't "candor" so much as a demonstration of political ineptitude. If he is trying to sell the idea that the Republicans are going to give up their "Southern Strategy", this isn't the way to do it. This just makes him look foolish. Why would the chairman of a major party admit that his party is corrupt and racist? It can't be candor. It can be stupidity.