Massachusetts: Republican National Committee

WASHINGTON -- The embattled chairman of the Republican National Committee, who has been accused of being too liberal, too flip, too willing to pick fights and too willing to apologize for them, has received a vote of mixed confidence from...

Rush Limbaugh and Michael Steele might have made up, but Democrats are doing their darndest to keep the pot boiling. The longtime conservative radio talk show host and the new chairman of the Republican National Committee had a war of...

It came down to a 6th-ballot choice between a black guy (Michael Steele) and a guy who until a few months ago belonged to a whites-only club (Katon Dawson), and the Republican National Committee members narrowly picked the black guy, 91-77.

For me, there's a symmetry to this. In 2004, the Republicans held their convention in New York, shortly after Illinois state senator Barack Obama stole the show in Boston with his keynote speech. Steele, then lieutenant governor of Maryland, was given a keynote slot by the GOP, and he gave a pretty good speech -- but the rank-and-file Republican delegates loved it, and treated him like their equivalent rising star to Obama.

ST. PAUL -- Former Gov. Mitt Romney wrote his primetime speech from beginning to end and the Republican National Committee did not change much in the vetting process, according to Romney's staff.

Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Romney, told PolitickerMA.com that Romney drafted the entire speech himself. The speech was submitted to the RNC for review, Fehrnstrom said, but they did not make any "substantive changes."