Bring Back Michael Steele

You can say this about Reince Priebus: He's no Michael Steele.

Advantage Steele.

I doubt that Steele, adult that he is, would have green-lighted that Clint Eastwood-stunt-gone-wrong - - letting the actor ad lib his way through a demeaning, prime-time wasting attack on the US Presidency.

As a vaudeville act, you couldn't have done any worse, and to close that circle - - no one was there with the hook.

Amateurs!

And give Priebus low marks also for exercising zero control over the content of the nominees' speeches.

As a Wisconsinite and consummate pol, Priebus certainly knew - - as the independent fact-checkers announced quickly - - that the Janesville GM plant had closed during the George W. Bush administration, regardless of Paul Ryan's dishonest, home-town revisionism.

And having called off day one of the convention because of the dangers posed by Hurricane Isaac, how could convention planners, the candidate himself and his staff let Romney wisecrack about rising seas when the Gulf and much of the Southeast is and will be flooded.
Is Louisiana laughing?

Are the insurance companies laughing? No: they've been warning about rising sea levels for years because they have underwritten policies exposing themselves to billions and billions in losses as the Arctic ice cap melts and seas rise and weather extremes are real.

Here was Romney's funny:

President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet…My promise is to help you and your family.

Not comedic. Or Presidential. As Mitt himself said Thursday, "We deserve better."

So the convention began as Isaac approached, and floundered while the rains kept falling.

Where was Michael Steele when they needed him?

Cross-posted at Purple Wisconsin.