From the Pork Barrel: The Art of Steele-ing

* You've got to admit. Former RNC chair Michael Steele seems a lot less silly all of a sudden.

* One small business owner is doing his part to help fix Obama's devastatingly not-so-bad employment numbers.

* Why won't David Petraeus release the birth certificate of the person he was sleeping with?! I'm just asking questions, people!

* The leader of the Tea Party Express is suddenly against tossing around blame. Next thing you know, she's going to place a moratorium on Uncle Sam hats and unintentionally-ironic protest signs.

* The 2028 Bush v. Clinton presidential race is shaping up nicely.

* Download our free iPhone and iPad app Indecision Election Companion and jump up into the the Peanut Gallery — our liveblog/instant reaction arena — to watch and respond as David Axelrod and Lindsey Graham discuss election results on CBS' Face the Nation this sunday at 10:30 am ET

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Chelsea Clinton, David Petraeus, Michael Steele, Pork Barrel, Reince Priebus, RNC, Unemployment

The Unconvention: A Soundbite-Free Evening of Political Talk

It is early September of the year 2012. The bloody and brutal Republican and Democratic national conventions have finally (mercifully) come to an end. After two solid weeks of unrelenting partisan mudslinging and terrible speech-giving, a battered and bewildered American people wander aimlessly through the smoldering remains of the political landscape, searching for some small salve. Something to restore their faith in democracy.

Luckily for them, on September 9th, Indecision is teaming up with 92Y’s Campaign for the American Conversation to present The Unconvention, a night in which people from all gradients of the political spectrum will come together for a night of bickerless political conversation and humor.

Performers and speakers that night include former governor and senator from Indiana Evan Bayh, Buzzfeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith, former RNC chair Michael Steele, MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan and 17-year-old reformed conservative partisan Jonathan Krohn.

Buy your tickets now!

Tags: Ben Smith, BuzzFeed, Dylan Ratigan, Evan Bayh, Indiana, Jesse Ventura, Michael Steele, Minnesota, Republican National Convention, Senate, The Unconvention

Quote Unquote: Michael Steele Likes Michael Steele

Michael Steele on how he deals with criticism of his and Lanny Davis' new bipartisan consulting firm, Purple Nation Solutions…

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"You know how I deal with it? I look in the mirror every morning and I say, I like this guy."

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Wow! Powerful stuff. If that's emblematic of of the kind of consulting advice he and Davis will be offering, I'm sure this venture will be a huge success.

Tags: Democrats, Lanny Davis, Michael Steele, Quote Unquote, Republicans

Thank You, Michael Steele, for This Hilarious GOP Primary

Evceryone here at Indecision — and anybody who makes their living from the ridiculousness of U.S. politics — should be sending a giant bouquet of roses to former GOP chair Michael Steele. It's a well-known fact that Steele's last-minute machinatinos resulted in the convoluted delegate rules that gave birth to this wondrously ridiculous primary contest.

But while many assumed Steele changed the rules to boost Romney, he was actually just trying to copy what the Dems did in 2008. He wanted a brokered convention and a complete train wreck of a primary from which the American public could not look away…

Steele, now an MSNBC commentator, has no regrets. "We have captured the national imagination for the last year," he asserts. "That was not the case four years ago." But is all publicity truly good publicity?… At this stage of the race, Romney looks more bruised than bolstered — which was not the case with Obama in 2008.

"A little chaos is a good thing, particularly in a system that tends to be moribund," Steele says, in defense of his rules. How good — or how bad — cannot be determined until later this year. But Romney and the party could end up paying big time for Steele's chaos theory experiment.

Chaos theory? I thought conservatives didn't believe in science.

To make this GOP race even more exciting, I'm proposing a list of additional rules for picking the party's nominee…

Read More »

Tags: Michael Steele, Primaries, Republican National Convention, Republicans

From the Pork Barrel: Mexicali Blues

* Looks like Barack Obama may have received donations from a people who turned out to be refugees hiding in Mexico. If I were Mitt Romney, I'd be really mad at my family.

* Michael Steele does not "appreciate" gay marriage being compared to interracial marriage. Political leaders these days, they don't "appreciate" anything.

* Bill O'Reilly: "The bigotry against pro-life people is I think way more than the bigotry against gay people." He may be right; even reason seems to be in opposition to his people.

* Tonight's primary in Missouri is a completely meaningless relic of bygone days. Which, come to think of it, probably goes a long way toward explaining Rick Santorum's dominance there.

Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Abortion, Barack Obama, Bill O'Reilly, California, Crime, Fox News, Judiciary, LGBT, Marriage Equality, Mexico, Michael Steele, Money, Proposition 8