Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is facing his four opponents at the RNC chair debate today — and in his opening remarks, he set out to tell the tough crowd how hard he has worked in the past two years’ successful effort to improve the party’s fortunes.
Steele is widely tipped to lose his re-election campaign, due to the party’s large debts and his history of making gaffes. But at the debate, he opened up by saying just how badly off the party was when he first found it.
[TPM SLIDESHOW: Michael Steele’s Summer Vacation: Elect Republicans, Then Reelect Me!]
“When I began this job in 2009, we couldn’t find anyone to say they were a Republican, let alone run for one,” Steele said. “We couldn’t find people who actually believed that we could do it, that we still had value. Time magazine claimed that we were an endangered species in 2009 — not that long ago.
“So in coming to the RNC, where we were hemorrhaging our base of conservative supporters — long before my tenure began — where our donors were frustrated and angered, where our core beliefs were questioned, we put together a small team, and got busy at the task of winning elections — reaffirming the value of this party to the American people, but most especially to those who have committed themselves to it. And that was hard work.
“I’m a glass half full kind of guy. I don’t see the crisis as some may see it. I don’t see it as something where the alarm bells go off and you start throwing and remaking and blowing up, but what you do is you get down to the heavy burdensome work of building. and we did.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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