Republicans Choose First Black Party Chairman

The article from the New York Times, Republicans Choose First Black Party Chairman, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/us/politics/31repubs.html?ref=todayspaper, by Adam Nagourney, a new party chairman has been elected by the Republican party. What makes this elected chairman so unique is that he is the first African American to be elected to this position by the Republican party. After reading this article it seems that Mr. Steele's goal as the party chairman is to take on President Obama. It is predicted that Mr. Steele will be at the leading edge of his party, at least until the presidential race, when it makes its case against Obama. I don't get it, for years and years it was thought to be unheard of to have an African American in any type of political position and now we have an African American president. I am super excited about this, I think president Obama is going to make an excellent president, but there is something about this Mr. Steele that upsets me, he said his plans are to aggressively take on Obama. I can understand the opposition between the two parties, but to me it just seems that Mr. Steele is out to prove that he is the best, and is not going to let another African American out do him, instead of being more focused on the government and what his job is really about.