Does Bob Beckel’s warning to Democrats about Michael Steele show that Democrats have the race card at the ready?

Wow, that Michael Steele is one slick black dude. That seems to be the gist of Bob Beckel’s piece warning Democrats not to underestimate the new RNC chairman:

I have spent hours with Steele at the Fox News studios, and in dozens of TV encounters, and at dinners. Steele is a friendly, formidable, and very partisan man who should not be underestimated. He has a disarming and gifted television personality and an uncanny ability to make the most unreasonable arguments sound rational. In a debate, he can charm his opponents into a false sense of security, and then proceed to maul them. Democrats who underrate Steele do so at their own peril.

The press continually refers to Steele as a “moderate”, but he is not a moderate — he only plays one on television. Under that friendly persona of reasonableness lies the soul of a doctrinaire conservative. From an ardent supply-sider to a committed pro-life advocate (he came within a year of being ordained a Catholic priest), Steele is firmly on the Right.

Well, I hope the hell he’s right.  But, you ask, from where does the “black” in “slick black dude” come? From later in the same piece (my emphasis):

But Steele is smart enough to avoid direct attacks on a popular president. That said, he anticipates Obama’s favorable ratings to fall, which is likely, and when they do, expect Steele to go after the president with a vengeance. It is here that Steele enjoys an advantage: his race. He can attack Obama without being accused of playing the race card.

So his slickness his dangerous not in itself, but because Steele’s skin color makes it impossible for Democrats to resort to their ace-in-the-hole whenever Steele proves particularly effective.

To tell you the truth, I’m really surprised the race card hasn’t already been pulled from the deck in Obama’s short presidency. (If it has been prominently wielded, I’ve missed it.)  Not that I expect President Obama to play the race card personally; he has way too many partisans willing to do so on his behalf, so he can take advantage of it without getting in the mix.

I know that Beckel’s piece falls short of an explicit admission that Democrats will pull out the race card against any effective opponent of the president.  But I think his statement is an unwitting disclosure that the race card is the “go to” play when the Obama administration finds itself against the ropes on anything even remotely connected to class or race.

That said, I don’t expect the race card to be pulled out of the deck a lot.  Four years of screaming “Racists!” just won’t be convincing, especially if wielded regarding issues that have nothing to do with it.

H/T: HotAir Headlines.