| | RNC chair candidates: Worst GOP president? Anyone but W.
 Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) may argue that George W. Bush is the worst president ever, but he won't find that sentiment shared by a slew of Republicans vying for the GOP chairmanship.
Candidates for the position were asked which Republican president was the worst at a debate held on Monday. None of the candidates named Bush as their choice for worst, despite Bush's record-low approval ratings at home and abroad.
The candidates, who included Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell, Katon Dawson, Saul Anuzis, current chair Mike Duncan, and Chip Saltsman (of "Barack the Magic Negro" notoriety), had just unanimously agreed that Ronald Reagan was their favorite Republican president.
The "Magic Negro" controversy was not brought up in the debate, but afterwards, Steele criticized Saltsman, saying the parody song that Saltsman included in a CD distributed to Republican National Committee members "reinforces a negative stereotype of the party."
In another highlight from the debate, Steele, who lost a Senate run against Ben Cardin in 2006, criticized how the Republicans have fallen behind Democrats in the communications game.
"It's time that we recognize that the Democrats have had a strategy in place for a significant amount of time in which they've bested us because they communicate where it matters," said Steele, an African-American.
"Unless you're putting in some good face time and you're actually raising up the leadership from the ground up--not just sticking them on the committee and saying, 'Gee, look who we got,' like we do with black folks and a whole lot of other folks around here... [When] we actually put them in the game and let them play the game, that's when you'll start to attract folks," Steele said, to laughter and applause.
This video is from CNN.com, broadcast Jan. 5, 2008.
Download video via RawReplay.com
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