On Tuesday’s Morning Joe, columnist S.E. Cupp took some time to weigh in on the GOP candidates’ chances going forward in the South, particularly where Newt Gingrich — widely considered a “shoo-in” in the area, given he’s a Georgia native — is concerned. It turns out that Gingrich’s “Southern Strategy,” she shared, is something of a misnomer.

Former RNC Chairman Michael Steele‘s tumultuous tenure as head of the national GOP was marked by his tendency toward outspokenness, a tendency that earned him little reward. Since he become a contributor for MSNBC almost a year ago, however, that tendency has become an asset. Although still a strong critic of President Obama, the Chairman isn’t afraid to tell uncomfortable truths about his own party. In part two of our exclusive interview, Chairman Steele discusses one such truth: the Republican Party’s rocky relationship with racial politics.

During his victory speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney stuck to the script for the most part, rarely straying from the “prepared remarks” released by the campaign as the speech began. There was only one substantial change: Romney added an accusation that President Obama “wants to turn America into a European-style social welfare state,” whereas in the prepared remarks, the line read “entitlement society.”

Surging presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is under fire for a remark at a campaign event Sunday in Sioux City, Iowa, where he apparently brought up the plight of black people completely out of the blue. Or did he?

According to reports, Santorum said ”I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.”

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele made an admission, this week, that was both stunning and obvious. Speaking to a group of DePaul University students, Steele was asked why a black person should vote for a Republican. In responding, Steele put on the record the political equivalent of a Republican reverse-Sasquatch, something everyone knows is real, but pretends is a myth: The Southern strategy.