to minorities, Steele must first rally the party’s southern white male base and independents. “We want to take our political message everywhere, but that’s where we want to start from a priority perspective. It’s going to be very difficult to attract more blacks with our first African American president in the White House,†he says.
However, Steele’s bumpy road has not been entirely of his own making. “Unfortunately, there’s no handbook or guidebook for leaders of a national party,” says Calvin Mackenzie, chair of the government department at Colby College in Maine. “I’m mixing metaphors, but Steele tangled with an icon and got burned. Maybe that’s just part of the normal chastening process of learning how to do the job, but I don’t think he’ll repeat that mistake.â€