Michael Steele not only proved himself to be an ineffectual spokesman, he was afflicted with a serious case of foot in mouth disease which plagued his entire chairmanship. His appointment reflected the vacuousness of the Republican Party which began with the second term of the Bush administration. The victories of 2010 were accomplished not under the guidance of Michael Steele but in spite of his unfocused and even chaotic leadership by the spontaneous upwelling of the Tea Party.
His appointment was all the more unfortunate at the time because the Republican Party controlled no branch of the federal government having lost The House as well as the Senate and the White House. This meant that the party chairman would have to play a very prominent role as a counterpoint to the president, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, to the Speaker of the House. We chose a spokesperson because of his color rather than his forensic skills.
He not only fell short in the public arena but in the behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts business of raising money and rebuilding the party as well.
Many of us pleaded time and again on this forum for his removal.
Where is the evidence he fell short? We had an historic election victory in 2010. And from what I hear Republican fundraising has been doing just fine. Anyone can claim he did a bad job, but I'm going to need to see the evidence of it before I believe it. I saw him on TV and radio as a spokesman sometimes and didn't hear anything all that bad. Certainly nothing worse than we get from Priebus now.
Great post, that just really nails it, and your retrospective posts show you called it at the time. None of which should surprise anyone who reads your posts and has been paying attention.
Well stated.