The brains of the Sanford outfit has sent out a letter endorsing Nikki Haley, which is of a whole lot more value than if the gov himself were to do so.
Of course, in terms of substance, it’s the same. Which is to say, an endorsement of Nikki is an endorsement of more of the same stuff we’ve suffered through for seven years. An excerpt from Jenny Sanford’s letter:
With many of our public schools shamefully underperforming, I dearly wish for better educational opportunities for our children. With a state government structure that rewards the status quo and stands in the way of change, I wish for vital government reforms. It’s amazing how much better off the people of our state would be if those things happened.
But they won’t happen by just wishing for them. They won’t happen without an enormous amount of hard work. And they won’t happen without making a lot of entrenched powers upset.
I’m proud of the work Mark and his Administration have done over almost seven years now, trying very hard to move the ball forward on all of those fronts. Little in life that is worth accomplishing ever comes without some setbacks along the way. While the Sanford Administration has had some defeats in its efforts to reduce out-ofcontrol state spending, reform archaic state government structure, and give children more educational choices, it has also had successes.
Jenny was always the brains behind Mark. So while her endorsement might generate more sympathy, in terms of political substance, it means the same.
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While Nikki may well agree with a number of Sanford’s policies, many if not most of the problems of his administration were due more to his personality rather than his beliefs. Nikki has worked effectively as a legislator demonstrating an ability to “work and play well with others” which has been largely absent for the last eight years. This should certainly be evaluated before stating that a Haley administration will simply be more of the last seven years. The evidence says otherwise
Actually, Greg, you make a good point. Nikki is WAY more socially functional than our current gov.
In fact, now that you’ve got me thinking about it, in a lot of ways Nikki is what Sanford makes himself out to be. Sanford makes like he’s the great reformer who doesn’t succeed because the entrenched forces of status quo won’t cooperate with HIM. But his main problem is that he pushes away people who would otherwise work with him.
Meanwhile, Nikki really DOES take on the system, and frequently makes progress doing so. She pushes it a bit sometimes, and can be a little Sanfordesque with her self-righteousness, but with her it’s just never quite as obnoxious.
That said, she is really wrong on some important issues. And with the exception of restructuring, her ideas can actually be quite harmful. So in a way, a Sanford who is more functional and works better with others could actually be worse than what we have now.
So it kinda cuts both ways…
Well, I wholeheartedly agree with her on education. When she says she wants to “run government like a business” it means, to me, carefully monitoring expenditures and results. I like her because she has Sanfordesque ideals which can truly help this state and the wherewithal to move towards effecting them.
The bit in the gubernatorial candidate debates where she said that Boeing came b/c of the reform in small business taxes!?!?
She’s nice, but….
I’m not sure that Jenny will generate much more political sympathy than Mark. Back before the Argentine fiasco, Mark Sanford’s policies (especially grandstanding about refusing unemployment insurance and stimulus funds) were already exceedingly unpopular in South Carolina. Most people understood that these were Jenny Sanford’s positions as much as Mark’s. Her role in his career has never been a secret. There may be some sympathy for a wronged wife, but she is still perceived as part of a team that brought nothing positive to our state, and much unpleasantness.
Tell us more about your thoughts on Haley’s positions and why you think they might be harmful. I tell you, she’s begun to capture my imagination. Think about it. She was a lone voice crying out in the wilderness for awhile, and she flat turned around a significant good ol’ boy tradition of vote-counting.
I’m confused. If she so interested in education, why did she run to Brad and Cindi last year to complain about Bobby Harrell moving her from a business committee to an education committee? As I recall, she considered that punishment.
Oh please. Jenny Sandford doesn’t give a frickity frack about public education. An endorsement from anyone who is proud of the work Mark Sanford has done during the last seven years is a kiss of death best not delivered.