We have to admit, when we first started watching this C-SPAN video of RNC Chairman and D.C. native Michael Steele talking to students at H.D. Woodson Senior High School, we were ready to scoff. Really Michael Steele, we wondered, do you actually want to tell students in DCPS, where only one out of ten students ever graduate from college, that while at Johns Hopkins, “I partied my behind off,” and “I heard there were classes” and then mock the letter announcing that you had been kicked out?

But we kept watching, and Steele ultimately gets around to telling a pretty compelling story about the importance of hard work and expectations, all while throwing shout-outs to biscuits and grits, D.C. rowhouses, and Sterling Laundry. Take a look.

(Hat tip – The Atlantic)