Republican Michael Steele is speaking now at Black State of the Union. He's disarming, engaging, and is speaking frankly about race. (Update: see below for why Steele would be a poor choice.)
Will McCain pick this guy as veep? He's also speaking about Obama - he's very proud of Obama. "But all of that doesn't mean anything if we don't hold leadership accountable. I want to be held accountable."
Black State of the Union is streamed all day today on C-Span (click to get video.)
From Steele: "It's not just about talking, it's about doing." It sounds very much like he's ready to run against as McCain/Steele against the Obama ticket.
Your thoughts?
Sheilah Jackson-Lee up next.
Anyone watching State of the Black Union today? It's excellent. Wish Tavis allowed Michelle to speak, that was weak of him. Still it's a good conference.
Many of you may know I was pulling for Hillary. But regardless this is a transformative primary and election. I was so frustrated last year hearing from white friends who would vote Obama, but feared other white people would never vote for a black candidate. I heard blacks say the same thing, they were voting Hillary because a black candidate could never win. I want Hillary to win, but I don't want her to win for those reasons.
How far we've come since just December.
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UPDATE: Huge cheers in the audience after Tavis, and a woman speaker saying voters need to stay engaged beyond the election. Consider this a liveblog of Black State of the Union.
UPDATE II: Thank you to Naturegal for filling us in on the local view of Steele:
I'm from Maryland and I helped defeat this man when he ran against Ben Cardin for the Senate.
Steele played the race card in the worst way in Maryland. He and former GOP Governor Bob Ehrlich actually bused in black homeless people from Pennsylvania to work the streets for the GOP before the election.
Then Steele and Ehrlich put black politicians -- who did not support them -- on voting guides indicating that they had the support of these black politicians.
It was dishonest, it was disgusting, and the black voters of Maryland rejected Steele -- and Ehrlich -- in a big way.
I'm proud that Sen. Ben Cardin is now my senator.