RNC Chairman Michael Steele Says He and Obama Have It Harder Because of Their Race

Embattled RNC Chairman Michael Steele broke his silence on the RNC fundraising scandal known as “bondage-gate” Monday morning when he sat down for an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Expressing racial kinship with the man he spends a good deal of his time attacking, Steele said that because of the color of their skin, he and President Obama aren’t granted much latitude for mistakes on the job.

Stephanopoulos, offering up a question from a viewer named “Myron” via his blog, asked, “Do you feel that, as an African-American, you have a slimmer margin for error than another chairman would?”

“The honest answer is yes,” said Steele responded. “Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. A lot of folks do. It’s a different role for me to play and others to play and that’s just the reality of it. But you take that as part of the nature of it.”

{snip}

Meanwhile, the White House has already weighed in with a jaundiced view of Steele’s racial observations. When a reporter sought comment at Monday morning’s press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called Steele’s racial aside a “silly comment to make” and quipped, “I think Michael Steele’s problem isn’t the race card; it’s the credit card.”