It came down to a 6th-ballot choice between a black guy (Michael Steele) and a guy who until a few months ago belonged to a whites-only club (Katon Dawson), and the Republican National Committee members narrowly picked the black guy, 91-77.

For me, there's a symmetry to this. In 2004, the Republicans held their convention in New York, shortly after Illinois state senator Barack Obama stole the show in Boston with his keynote speech.

--As you can imagine, I am super-duper excited for today's RNC committee vote for chairman. Incidentally, I'm getting some chatter that incumbent Mike Duncan is now Mitt Romney's stalking-horse; meanwhile, former Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman (but actually, in my analysis, a stalking horse for Bill Frist), has dropped out on account of having absolutely no support whatsoever.