Dennis Aughtry, governor, Democratic

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4 p.m. "You can improve education by throwing money at it," said Moore rival Dennis Aughtry. The money would come from casino gambling, which he says would do away with all of South Carolina’s problems from unemployment to property taxes. "I don’t want to sound like it’s the end-all and be-all," he said of gambling. "But frankly, it is."

This was a very interesting and unusual interview. A couple of weeks
earlier, one of the hostesses of the Galivants Ferry Stump Meeting
asked me if I knew why Mr. Aughtry was running. All he had talked
about, she said, was gambling. Well, that’s why he’s running.

"I’m going to change this state and it’s going to be a radical change and we’re going to do it through gambling," he proclaimed to us. His model is Mississippi, which he says took in $4.5 billion in taxes in 2005 on casinos.

"Gambling is sure, it’s tried, it’s proven."

He can really wax poetic about it. I admit that I have still not fixed my problem with posting video clips on the Web, but I think it’s worth posting this one. And it’s worth your waiting for it to download. Play solitaire or something. It might take 10 minutes or so.

Highlights from the video include the above quote about "end-all and be-all," plus:

  • "This worn-out soybean field, cotton field, tobacco field which had been flooded by the Mississippi River, and burned by the sun… casinos rose like phoenix from the ashes — glistening casinos, which were nothing but piles of money, really." (Referring to Tunica, Miss.)

  • "I can tell you to a certainty that if gambling comes to South Carolina, that you won’t have any unemployment, and you won’t have any property tax in a short time. You’re not gonna need it."

  • But you gotta get past the South Carolina/North Carolina mentality that it’s gonna send you straight to hell. You’ve gotta get past the mentality that I’m selling out my soul."

  • "A lot of people think you get cheated in a casino, which is the furthest thing to happen."

  • "You’re not gonna see unemployed people, unless they just don’t wanna work. And every child’s going to have an education."