Our second political Quote of the Day comes from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, commenting on RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s allegation that race has played at least part of a role in increasing criticism of Steele’s job performance:
“I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card, it’s the credit card,” Gibbs added.
Indeed, as Gibbs also notes, Steele’s comment is just “silly.” He is a BAD FIT for the job as a party chairman and would have been controversial if he was head of the DNC and some of the same problems occured there. There is a certain “corporate behavior” that is expected and at the very least he can be accused of running a very loose ship that does not maximize success. (UPDATE: Yet another blow to Steele…)
Increasingly, Steele seems to resemble another “Michael” — Michael Gary Scott, the hapless boss on the NBC hit TV show The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell. Michael Scott thinks he’s the best, funniest, most efficient boss in the world and he’s deluding himself. All you need now is a Jim and Pam subplot at the RNC and the parallel would be complete.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.