Roostercogburn
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Palin and Steele Represent the Same Problem For The GOPPalin and Steele are both being sent to stand in the corner--to pay for the failures of the actual leaders of the party. The whole party is essentially made up of old, stupid, white guy *gamblers*--just as McCain made a gamble that by picking Palin he'd get just enough support and excitement to get over the hump and get into the White House they thought that they could somehow, for a short time, parlay Steele's blackness into a short term benefit vis a vis the Democratic party and Obama. He was the default choice but he was their choice and that was fairly explicit in their public reasoning on why he was chosen--he was there to reassure suburban whites that the GOP weren't stone cold racists.
But just as with McCain's picking Palin, or Joe the Plumber, this form of "identity politics" will almost always push a cardboard cutout of a person into an important role (vp, spokesman, rnc chair) that you actually need a very talented person to fill. They've just run up against the limits of putting a figure head in to do a real job and are now trying to figure out how to get rid of him and put a technocrat in. This move won't hurt them with their base, because their base really hates token blacks. In the case of Palin the move will hurt them with their base, because Palin was sold to them, and believed to be, "one of them." Pass the popcorn.
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