I am notified by colleague Cindi Scoppe that one of the five candidates I’m supposed to interview tomorrow (out of the 55 such interviews that were set for this month) has canceled on us. Thank the Lord for his small blessings.
I thought for a moment she meant he was rescheduling, but apparently he’s canceling altogether.
Who is it who’s not showing? Henry Jordan, who is running for — hang on, let me check — the
Republican nomination for gov lite.
Why? Well, here’s what I was told:
Henry Jordan’s campaign called Sandy and cancelled his meeting for tomorrow. Said they did not feel like they could get a fair shake from The State and Jordan needed to spend his time campaigning. Sandy asked the person to leave a message on my voice mail; that message said merely that Jordan was canceling the interview.
That’s it. No further explanation. Apparently Dr. Jordan has no confidence that he’d have a chance of being endorsed when he’s running against Andre Bauer. I don’t know what precipitated such a crisis of confidence. I can’t remember us writing anything about Dr. Jordan recently. And it’s hard to imagine that a guy would worry about, say, being misquoted when he’s best known for having said, as a member of the state school board, "Screw the Buddhists and kill the Muslims. And put that in the minutes."
Seriously. I think he was talking about the Ten Commandments at the time.
I guess he’s gotten shy with the passage of time.
Anyway, that makes him the ranking office-seeker of this particular election cycle to refuse to come in for his interview. It’s really pretty rare for that to happen. The all-time ranking refusal came from Gov. Jim Hodges, who refused to come in to defend his re-election bid in 2002 — the only time that’s happened with a gubernatorial candidate in my years on the board.
Out of the 55, two others have said they wouldn’t come:
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Joe Owens, Lexington County councilman. That puzzled me. We have both agreed and disagreed with Mr. Owens in the past. We did not endorse him last time. But I ran into him in the Food Lion a few months ago, and we had a fairly normal and agreeable conversation about county politics, so I don’t know what’s under his skin now. He told Warren Bolton he knew we would endorse Bill Banning, so what’s the point? I remember Mr. Banning’s name, but have only met him once or twice, and am having trouble remembering what he looks like (sorry about that). I suppose I’ll remember right away when he comes in — and his opponent doesn’t.
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R.L.B. Jay Julius (aka, "BJ the DJ"), seeking the Republican nomination to oppose Lexington County’s one Democratic councilman, Billy Derrick. I don’t recall whether I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Julius, but he sounds like such a meeting would have been interesting.
That leaves 52.
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I can’t remember us writing anything about Dr. Jordan recently.
The Sun News just ran an AP story on him. Very entertaining:
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/14496455.htm
I think this is what kc is referring to:
By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – Lieutenant governor candidate Dr. Henry Jordan says science does not support Darwin’s theory that man evolved from monkeys and that public school students should learn “intelligent design” along with evolution.
“I think everything ought to be taught … and let people decide for themselves. There is no science to support trans-species changes, in other words a monkey becoming a man,” the Republican said in an interview Monday with The Associated Press.
“A bunch of amoebas didn’t get together and design all this,” Jordan said, referring to the human body. “We’d be operating on people … looking at their hearts, their liver and their lungs, I’d tell the techs, ‘Can you believe those little amoebas figured all this out?’
“I mean you’ve got to be stupid to believe in evolution, I mean really,” he said.
Jordan believes the sin of pride and people’s desire to decide their own fate, rather than obey God, are why people believe in evolution.
Jordan, a state Board of Education member from 1997-2001, will face incumbent Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and Mike Campbell, son of the late Gov. Carroll Campbell, in the Republican primary next month. Jordan lost a bid for lieutenant governor in 1994.
While on the state board, Jordan was perhaps best known for his push to give schools the ability to post the Ten Commandments. Jordan said Monday he believes it’s important to continue to acknowledge God in public life. He believes God continues to bless the United States, despite its transgressions, because it is Israel’s “only real friend” and because Americans fund most of the world’s missionaries.
“There are only two nations I know of that have been supernaturally blessed: Israel, because God chose them … and the other is the United States,” Jordan said.
“God chose Israel to demonstrate His love to His creation. … Our forebears chose to honor Him in our language and documents and public life, and He’s blessed us beyond our natural resources, beyond the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.”
Jordan, a flight surgeon in Vietnam, said his religious views are partly why he supports school choice. He wants the General Assembly to approve Gov. Mark Sanford’s proposal to give parents tax credits for home school and private school. The measure, dubbed Put Parents in Charge, died in the Legislature last year.
Jordan, who became a Christian roughly 25 years ago, was criticized in 1997 for a comment he made during a Board of Education committee meeting about Buddhists and Muslims. The comment crudely dismissed the two groups for their likely opposition to posting the Ten Commandments in schools or praying before meals. He said he was teasing when he said it.
On Monday, Jordan declined to rehash the decade-old comment and resulting controversy. He said he apologized after meeting with the American Muslim Society’s leaders, they accepted, and “it’s a closed issue.”
Posting the Ten Commandments “has nothing to do with proselytizing or trying to cram Christianity down people’s throats,” Jordan said. “A real Christian understands that Billy Graham can’t cram it down somebody’s throat if they’re not receptive. … You could put the Ten Commandments on every corner, it wouldn’t make any difference.”
Jordan opposes abortion and gay marriage and advocates shrinking state government. He said his conservative ideology also includes cracking down on illegal immigration, which he considers a serious national security problem. In a news release, Jordan asked Americans to “boycott the boycott.” Across the country Monday, immigrants stayed home from work and school to demonstrate their importance to the economy.
Jordan said he wants America to enforce its laws on illegal immigration, build a fence along the nation’s southern border and protect it with guards.
“Here they are threatening us in our own country,” Jordan said. “It’s an issue of undermining the law. It’s also an issue of fairness to taxpayers.”
You’re celebrating the fact that you’ll be missing out on so much unintentional humor and self-parody as would have been provided by this fine subject? This guy seemingly trumps Pat Robertson’s most “inspired” 700 Club moments.
I’d be begging him to reschedule. A good, hearty laugh (or ten) from such a willing (lately, unwilling) donor is invaluable .
You should consider yourself lucky,he probably carries a gun.
I would assume it depends on the office,but how big an impact do these interviews have on your decisions?
You’re right, it depends. In smaller races, the interview can have a big impact. Or, a good selling job in the interview can make the difference in a tough decision, even a big one. But no interview, even on a small race, is ever conducted in a vacuum. Our editorial board has over 100 years of experience in the newspaper business, most of that dealing with politics one way or another, and most of THAT dealing with politics in South Carolina.
In races in which the candidate is an unknown, we usually know as much about the office the person is running for and the issues involved as the candidate does. Not because we’re so smart, but because we have the advantage of experience. What I mean is, a candidate will almost certainly know more than we do about what’s happening at a given moment in his or her county council district, for instance, but we’ve usually dealt with the overall council and the countywide issues much more than that person.
What that means is that we’re unlikely to be taken in by a half-hour performance in an interview; it occurs in a broader perspective. Note that when I say we know as much as the candidates (if not more), I’m talking about with newcomers, not longtime incumbents. But with longtime incumbents, we have a lot more to go by that the interview right off the bat.
I’ve come out of such meetings fooled, but I can’t think of a case when that state of ignorance on my part lasted to the actual endorsement. Yeah, we’ve made endorsements we later regretted, but those mistakes weren’t based solely on the interviews. At least, I can’t think of a case like that.
I just woke up and realized I’m rambling here. My answer probably doesn’t make all that much sense to someone who hasn’t been through this. I could have saved myself a lot of typing by sticking with “It depends.” Oh, well.
I’m worn out. I’ve had four of these interviews today, on top of the usual daily routine — which for us, never takes a day off.
I think I’ll go home.
Bill, I can say that 99.99% of people who carry a gun are the most law abiding and safe people you would ever want to be around. When I say carry a gun I mean legally. Nuts and criminals carry guns illegally of course. I was curious whether you were referring to ALL who carry guns or the latter category.
Henry Jordan must have ego problems.
To think he would have chance in this race is totally hilarious.
He might as well be running for Governor of Alaska while living here in South Carolina.
His personal views aside – he has no chance and I can only imagine he is running because he just doesn’t have anything else to occupy his time right now.