Steele on McCain at NAACP
Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 3:44 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC’s Lauren Appelbaum
After McCain's speech to the NAACP, former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele (R-MD) admitted the Arizona senator is unlikely to garner much of the black vote, but praised him for connecting with the audience.
"You've got to live in the real,” Steele said to NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. “Barack is going to take more than the lion's share of the black vote. But that doesn't and has not stopped John McCain from competing for that vote. And I think that says a lot about the kind of president he is going to be -- that he doesn't just see this as an election opportunity, that he sees this as an opportunity for America to right a lot of wrongs certainly but to grow together -- the idea of every boat being lifted at the same time, and I think that's a powerful message."
Unlike Obama, McCain held a Q&A after his speech, which caused a visible stir in the room.
"You could hear the room go, what?! He's actually going to open this up?!" Steele later said. "And I was asking folks, 'Did Barack do that?' And they were, like, 'No.' So, I think it speaks to the style. It speaks to the substance of the man in terms of how he wants to engage the black community, and I appreciate him doing it.
Steele, who conquered a couple statewide firsts as an African American in the Republican Party, said it is "long overdue" for Republican leaders to reach out to the African Americans.
"I think the work has to begin in earnest,” Steele said, “and I think John McCain wants to do that. Regardless of how the election falls out in November, the Republican Party -- if they want to be players; if they want to be taken seriously as a political voice in this country -- they are going to have to engage in all levels, all communities. And you can't piecemeal this. You can't have this attitude, ‘Well, they won't vote for us so why bother?’"
