Sharks Vs. Very Mean Pirates: Michael Steele's Latest Incoherent Analogy

Posted by Matt Corley, Think Progress at 2:20 PM on June 25, 2009.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele is known for his creative analogies. In April, he declared that regional differences in the GOP were just like people who wear their hats in different ways, a metaphor he used again at a recent College Republican conference. On Frank Beckman’s radio show on Wednesday, Steele broke out a new metaphor to describe why he thinks its bad for government to step in and help save jobs in private industries:

BECKMAN: And the people who are out of work, you know, they’re not much concerned right now about, about who saves them, whether it’s the private sector or public, they just want to be saved.

STEELE: Yeah, that’s true, but there’s a danger that lies in that. And I think that’s where an appreciation, if not an education, of the consequences of certain policies has got to get talked about and people really need to understand. You know, it’s like the guy who, you know, is in the water and you know, he wants to get saved from the sharks, but then — from the sharks — but then he gets picked up by a bunch of pirates or, you know, or some bad guys. You know, what’s worse being in the water or being in the boat where they’re beating the heck out of you every day? So, you know, the reality of it is, it does matter who saves you.

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Tagged as: economy, business, steele, unemployment, pirates, sharks

Matt Corley is a Research Associate for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.