RNC proves me wrong | Michael Tomasky

Well, they're not quite done voting for Republican Party chair, but we can already say that my experiment has gone down to crashing defeat. You'll recall that I argued that we could predict who'd be elected the next RNC chair based solely on the candidates' photos. And I, and several of you, thought Ann Wagner of Missouri looked the most Republican. I mean, have a look.

Well, through five ballots, it looks like this:

Reince Priebus: 67

Maria Cino: 40

Saul Anuzis: 32

Ann Wagner: 28

Dead last. Incredible.

Do you think our support actually hurt her? Maybe it was that time she answered the question about her favorite book by describing her favorite bar (her kitchen table). Maybe it was her ambassadorship to Luxemborg; you know, being in Europe made her soft on socialism. Maybe it was that sneaky Laura Ingraham.

I suspect subterfuge. In any case, the Steele era is over. Hail Preibus. He looks a little green to me, but as we noted earlier, he did chose The Reagan Diaries instead of "my kitchen table," so maybe there's more horsepower under that hood than first blush would suggest. So congratulations.

Since it's 5 o'clock Friday, let's make this a weekend post. Sorry no quiz this morning. Still a tad under the weather. Next week for sure. And meanwhile, does anyone give the Jets a chance Sunday? I can't believe the spread is nine points. That seems absurdly high.

Michael SteeleRepublicansMichael Tomasky
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