I’m blogging from the road (don’t worry, Bryan Preston is driving) on our way back from a Michael Steele campaign event. We’ll have an interview with him posted tomorrow at Hot Air. The GOP candidate was endorsed by a passionate, bipartisan group of pastors–several of whom made a point of declaring “I am a registered Democrat and I’m voting for Michael Steele!” You won’t read about in on the front page (or the back page) of the New York Times or Washington Post, or see it on Katie Couric’s newscast, of course. If he were a Democrat, the Beltway press corps would be panting “rock star, rock star” endlessly and he’d be on the cover of Esquire magazine.

Instead, Esquire derided him this week as a “lawn jockey” along with other black conservatives–more of the liberal racist smears that have been lobbed at Steele from the very beginning of his campaign.

He’s got incredible momentum–the race is now classified as a toss-up, polls are tightening, and black Democrats are coming out with strong support.

I’m told that the Cardin campaign is bringing Michael J. Fox, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton to help out in the last stretch before election day. They’re worried.

They should be. Steele is hot.

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Baltimore Sun: Steele cuts Cardin’s lead nearly in half
Baltimore Examiner endorses Steele

Update: Mary Katharine Ham was also at the Steele event today and shares her impressions.

Update: Ian spotlights more Steele smears from left-wing haters.