Comment on election results HERE…

167 Replies

… and I will do my best to keep up with them and approve them in something close to real time.

Remember, I’ll be on WIS from 7 to 8 tonight, and then again from 11 to midnight, if my voice holds out (I seem to have come down with an untimely cold).

So watch me, watch the returns, comment here, and I’ll try to keep up. I’m not sure what the accommodation will be at WIS for my laptop, but I’ll try to figure out something…

167 thoughts on “Comment on election results HERE…”

  1. Brad

    At the same time, if you want to comment here, and I do encourage that, I’m all wired (or wi-fied) up and will be approving your comments close to real time, to keep things moving.

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  2. Brad

    The pressure on this gig is low. I’m apparently sitting here as atmosphere so far.

    I’m not billed as an “expert,” but the college prof and lady from League of Women Voters are. So as I say, the pressure is low. I can stay loose…

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  5. Brad

    Hmm… I keep getting kicked off the WIS chat thing before I can type a comment.

    So until that’s fixed, you’ll see me a lot here…

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  8. Barry

    the chat feature on WIS seems odd- I can’t figure it out.

    None of my comments are going through. They must be screening them big time. Too bad.

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  12. Brad

    Sheheen now winning, 62 percent to 37 percent.

    Ummm… that’s 588 votes for him, 347 for her.

    So there MIGHT be a few more votes yet to come in.

    But for now… WooHOO!

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  13. Brad

    This just in: Michael P. is NOT claiming responsibility for being the troll on the WIS site.

    We have yet to hear from Hamas and Hezbollah…

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  15. Barry

    posted on their chat

    “We did have a couple of accounts hacked but we’re sorting that all out now. ”

    I wonder what that means?

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  17. anne m

    A big woohoo from liberal land! I know it won’t last but I’ll take it for as long as it lasts. I plan to be depressed for most of the night.

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  18. Barry

    These early results don’t mean anything.

    Brad- do you have access to the maps of what counties have reported? When the Republican counties come in, then you we will be able to tell something about where the race is going.

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  20. Shannon aka Scout

    Feeling pretty stupid – I can’t even find their chat feature – the link up there is not working for me.

    So how can they already have called it for DeMint? Are they basing that on exit polls? Don’t they have to actually count the votes?

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  21. Brad

    Yes, Scout — they talk to Miss Mayella Ewell on the way out of the polling place, and bingo, DeMint wins. It’s a harsh world, but you and Jem are just going to have to learn these things.

    Seriously, though… you can take THAT to the bank. He won.

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  22. Barry

    @Scout

    exit polls- Demint was a sure thing.

    WIS chat thing is messed up. You can’t really chat on it. It’s HEAVILY moderated. I’ve asked 4-5 questions so far- none have made it through.

    It’s basically a chat for the news folks to post comments.

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  23. Brad

    So comment here, Barry.

    Oh, and Michael P. — I wasn’t saying YOU were Matthew B. I was saying that you were the bogus “Brad Warthen” on the WIS site. I was saying that in answer to a question from Matthew B.

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  25. Brad

    Folks, I’m going to run home for dinner real quick. I’ll check comments when I get home, and just before I come back. I’m going to try to be back here by 9:25…

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  26. Barry

    How does Sheheen overcome the huge Haley vote county that will be in Greenville, Spartanburg?

    He has to have a good sized lead in Columbia and Charleston to overcome that.

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  28. kc

    I see The State has called if for DeMint, but says only 4% of precincts are reporting for the gubernatorial race.

    How does that work?

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  31. Shannon aka Scout

    I’m looking at the NYtimes, the sc election commission, and the WIS pages and they all are widely different, except poor old Holleman is losing everywhere.

    The NY times site seems to get results the fastest. They are up to 17% reporting and Sheheen and Haley are neck and neck.

    I need to go do something else for awhile. This is worse than a Carolina game. I can’t stand the tension.

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  33. Brad

    And as it happens, that fast-moving NYT site has Haley leading Sheheen by only a tenth of a percentage point, 49.3 percent to 49.2 percent, with 42 percent of the vote in. Looks like that Reeves guy, with 1.5 percent, could actually make a difference — if it stays this close…

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  35. Doug T

    Thanks for the NYT tip. Looks like some of the big GOP counties haven’t reported yet. Sheheen’s 20k lead evaporated when Horry reported.

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  37. Brad

    The network people are calling Haley-Sheheen a “nail-biter,” and they are stunned.

    They’re also talking about Miller-Wilson being close, but just wait until Lexington County is counted…

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  46. Barry

    Charleston should go Sheheen pretty good -right?

    is there still a lot to report out of Charleston?

    I expect Richland to go Sheheen as well- is this correct?

    Trying to figure out how many Sheheen areas are left out there.

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  49. Brad

    A question we have here in the studio, and no one knows the answer: How much of Lexington County is in, with that 2nd District race so close?

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  50. Phillip

    The biggest reason for pessimism re Sheheen at this point is that as of this moment only about 11% of Lexington County is in. It’s nice that Sheheen is so close but I don’t see where he is going to make up the difference in the remaining precincts.

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  51. jfx

    Only 11% of Lexington guv vote in….that’s troublesome. Richland mostly in, over 2-to-1 for Sheheen.

    Sheheen making up ground in Charleston but with Lexington only 11% in and Reeves spoiling, Vincent needs almost everything left unreported I think.

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  54. Brad

    Here’s an interesting tidbit for those of you who care about Identity Politics…

    The national people are stunned that Vincent Sheheen is doing so well against their already-crowned darling, Nikki Haley. How can this be happening to their Indian-American WOMAN?

    So far, none of them have focused on the fact that she’s up against a Lebanese-American Catholic. Not that it matters, but such things seem so important to THEM…

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  56. Barry

    To take a bit of Doug’s take on things

    It’s amazing that Ms. Haley didn’t have this wrapped up at 8:30 tonight considering that is happening nationally.

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  57. Brad

    Yeah, that Lexington vote that’s not in yet is bad news for Vincent — and bad news for Rob Miller.

    I’m reminded of 1988, when Jim Leventis (the godfather of Nancy Pelosi’s daughter — wouldn’t Joe Wilson have loved THAT?) was winning in every county going into Lexington. Then, when Lexington County came in, Floyd Spence — who essentially had risen from his presumed deathbed at the last minute in the campaign — swept right past him.

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  61. Brad

    I’m bracing myself, following jfx’s remark, for one of you Richland County smart-alecks to say, “It’s taking them longer because they have to take off their shoes to handle numbers that high…”

    I thought it best that I, a proud Lexington Countian, go ahead and say that FOR y’all, to rob you of the pleasure…

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  62. Brad

    And yeah, that sounds like York County. That’s the bane of John Spratt, and the reason why he’s had well-backed GOP opposition every election year for a decade… It’s Suburbland. Swimmin’ pools, SUVs… fat ‘n’ happy white folks…

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  63. Shannon aka Scout

    Will Jake Knott’s influence in Lexington County suppress some of the otherwise Nikki vote?

    Ny times has these counties out: Lancaster, Darlington, Calhoun, Barnwell, Colleton, Jasper, Edgefield, Saluda, and McCormick. Anybody know about the democratic potential in those areas?

    Totally guessing based on color proximity on the cute little colored map, but might Calhoun, Lancaster, and Darlington be a little bit blue?

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  65. Phillip

    To add to the dismal fact that almost all of Lexington County is out, two-thirds of Greenville County is still to report. I was predicting a razor-thin Sheheen victory all along, but with the vote count at this stage, seeing what has reported and what hasn’t, it does not look good. If he loses 51-49 that will be even more depressing than if had been just 55-45 or something decisive like that.

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  67. Norm Ivey

    The SCVotes website shows that all of Lexington County is in. Haley won big there, but overall it is still very close. Does that bode well for Sheheen?

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  69. Phillip

    Same thing with Joe Wilson, I see that Miller leads by 60 votes (!) with 61% in overall, but if Lexington County is still out then no way Wilson loses. Ya gotta say, though, if folks like Haley and Wilson can only win by the skin of their teeth in South Carolina in the middle of a giant national GOP wave, then maybe the long-term demographic cultural changes in SC that I’ve often alluded to are still well under way, if one does take the long view.

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  76. Phillip

    Brad, re your point, yes, lots are still out but I think the vote totals (turnout) in those counties will not be sufficient in raw numbers for Sheheen, even if he wins large percentage margins in those counties.

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  77. Brad

    A headline at thestate.com says “Voters carry anxiety, disappointment to the polls.”

    Huh. Wait until they see how they feel after a year or so of Gov. Haley.

    But this still isn’t quite over…

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  78. jfx

    Phillip, I wouldn’t be too disheartened. This was quite a coalition that formed despite the bitter anti-Obama/Pelosi headwind.

    A loss is a loss is a loss. But I don’t see Sheheen drifting into irrelevance like, say, Tommy Moore. It’s just going to take that much longer for SC to turn purple. Everything’s slower here.

    Tough day. Time to sleep on it.

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  83. Brad

    Well, you’re looking at two things there: the pernicious effect of slavish party loyalty — people who really WOULD vote for a yellow dog, etc. — and people who just wanted to vote against DeMint, and knew that Greene couldn’t win, so saw that as a safe protest vote.

    Haven’t you ever done that? I certainly have. In fact, the very first time I voted, I cast my vote for George McGovern even though I would have been appalled at the idea of him being president. I just knew he was going to lose big, and wanted to vote against Nixon. Because of Watergate.

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  84. jfx

    Wasn’t Tom Clements the safe protest vote? Over 100,000 of us voted for him. I could not in good conscience vote for either DeMint or Greene.

    I couldn’t vote for Curtis Loftis either. I did a write-in for “Brad Warthen”.

    My write-in lost.

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  87. Shannon aka Scout

    So why didn’t Clements get more of the DeMint protest vote? just wondering out loud. I voted for Clements. He seemed more reasonable than Greene.

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  88. Doug Ross

    All we see is that Sheheen got pretty much the same percentage as Tommy Moore and Jim Hodges.

    After months of negative campaigning… against a candidate with a lot of personal flaws… following a governor with even more serious personal flaws.

    All the bluster for the past few months had zero effect. Sheheen lost because he ran a lackluster campaign. He never made the case as to why he would be a good governor. He only tried to raise himself by tearing Haley down. Big strategic mistake.

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  90. Doug Ross

    And if I were Jim Clyburn, I wouldn’t crow too loudly about his victory. Look at the district map that was drawn specifically so an African-American could win a seat.

    Next election, we need a ballot question that would force congressional districts to be contiguous counties.

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  91. Herb Brasher

    The silver lining in all this, at least nationally, is that the veer to the right occurs now, in 2010, and not necessarily in 2012.

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  92. Herb Brasher

    Just curious, Brad–a back to the future question. Assuming you know what you know now, but the year is 1972. Would you have vote for McGovern with conviction, instead of just as a protest vote?

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  93. Brad

    As I just noted on the air… it’s really remarkable that Nikki, the media darling, didn’t do as well as other Republicans. In fact, Vincent Sheheen got a larger percentage of the vote than any other statewide Democrat, including Holleman, who was running for the one office where Dems tend to have an advantage.

    Look at a race like Sec of State. No one knows who Mark Hammond is, so his margin was more what you’d expect from a generic Republican on this GOP tidal wave night — 61 percent.

    But Nikki gets 52 percent. You know why? Because voters knew her better.

    Even Rich Eckstrom, with his HUGE negatives and that media campaign Barber ran against him, won with 57 percent of the vote. THAT is stunning.

    But Nikki? 52 percent… so far. With several small Democratic counties out…

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  95. Brad

    And in answer to Herb’s question: Nope.

    Would have been nice, as Stephen Ambrose noted, to have seen him run on his honorable war record as a bomber pilot. But no-o-o-o… his base wouldn’t have stood for that.

    Yeah, I voted against Nixon over Watergate. But take him all around, he was not the world’s worst president…

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  97. Barry

    wow- never saw anything like that before in South Carolina- Indian folks doing what may be an Indian dance at a Republican victory party at Haley’s headquarters.

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  98. Barry

    If Sheheen will stay in the public eye-

    I think he will have a great chance to win in 2014.

    He’s young. He will still be young in 4 years.

    He needs to become a little more visible.

    But after 4 years of Haley and the General Assembly fighting – I think he will have a chance.

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  99. Nick Nielsen

    Just looked at the Lexington county results. Over 31,000 voted straight party – 67.56% Republican and 28.63% Democrat. Assuming everybody voted for governor, that’s over 37% of voters who couldn’t be bothered to push more than one button.

    Pretty much gives the lie to the phrase “an informed electorate”. As much as I don’t think Nikki Haley should be governor, I don’t think Alvin Green should even be on the ballot.

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  101. Brad

    Vincent Sheheen conceding.

    Why didn’t he use that “take this state in a new direction” line as the theme of his frickin’ CAMPAIGN? Where was THAT? Did I miss it? Was it the key line in some TV ad I didn’t see?

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  102. Brad

    He just said it AGAIN!

    And yet he let Nikki get away with the big lie that SHE represented a new direction, in a year when the electorate was hungry (still, as they were in 2008) for change…

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  104. Barry

    That was a great speech by Senator Sheheen.

    Yes Senator- I so wanted you to take our state in a different direction. I want it so badly for my 3 young children.

    I hope you’ll get your chance. But it won’t be right now.

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  105. Barry

    @ Brad- that would have been a great campaign theme. He said that line tonight with a lot of emotion and feeling in his voice.

    As I had posted earlier- he had some wonderful 30 second clips on his website of him talking about “hard work” and “integrity” and values like that. I emailed the campaign and told them those 30 second clips should be commercials running all across the state. They were very basic, not fancy, just an interviewer asking him about the value of hard work. It was great stuff. But it was never a commercial.

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  106. Joanne

    I’m not sure I can distinguish between the two emotions right now.

    When I saw that Jenny Sanford and her ex- had appeared to smugly and gratuitously promote Haley, I lost focus and started looking at flights to Switzerland.

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  109. Joanne

    I guess I thought it was implied if not stated.

    Brad, you and I may think it would have made a super theme, but if many voters in this state voted for Haley given her problems, they wouldn’t have been swayed regardless of what he said.

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  111. Barry

    @Joanne

    The shocking thing to me is that voters in this state decided to cast their lot with Mark Sanford’s handpicked choice to replace him.

    Why fellow citizens would cast their lot with anything that Mark Sanford approved of is hard to understand for me.

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  112. Joanne

    I didn’t listen. I couldn’t. I’ll see him soon and just tell him I did what I could.

    I feel this so much because he was my student, and I appreciate the fact that his earnestness and sincerity has never changed.

    South Carolina is the worse for a lack of discernment right now.

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  118. Shannon aka Scout

    According to NY times site, Lancaster, Calhoun, and Colleton are still out. McCormick just came in with a slight edge for Sheheen and eroded Nikki to 51.9 %.

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  119. Phillip

    jfx, that’s funny about your write in vote—I wrote in Brad for adjutant general! I figured it had the word “general” in it and Brad writes often of how he likes the image of the knight-errant, etc. so I thought he’d make a good one, even though I have no idea what that job is.

    Yeah, I was surprised how many votes Greene got, was really hoping Clements would finish 2nd.
    And no, strangely not too disappointed about SC in the long term, even though Jon Stewart just called us the “fourth best Carolina, after North Carolina and two Carolinas that don’t exist.” Ouch.

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  121. Barry

    That SC votes website isn’t updated at all. It’s like they quit trying.

    I’ve been trying to find out about Few- Butler in House 79 myself.

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  122. Tom

    Yes, thanks Nick! Finally some good news. A huge victory by Mia Butler.

    Brad, thanks so much for your election coverage and look forward to following your blog in the future.

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  124. Brad

    Oh, and congrats to the NYT for doing a better, faster, more complete job of reporting numbers from SC than any SC media.

    I guess it would be a little too much to expect the NYT to tell us about state legislative races…

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  125. Brad

    Still waiting for national media to notice that the first Lebanese-American Catholic to win a major-party nomination for governor in South Carolina just lost…

    I mean, they’re so into that stuff…

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  127. Barry

    Just heard the guy on WLTX – the dean of USC’s Mass Communications school and former CNN guy – say

    “Haley is missing an opportunity here. Most candidates will come out shortly after the concesssion speech. It’s now midnight and most people have turned off the tv and went to bed.”

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  128. Brad

    Everybody here in the studio wondering why Nikki hasn’t made an appearance.

    They need to get used to it. Our next governor is going to care even less about South Carolina than our current one, and she DEFINITELY couldn’t care less about SC media. She got elected riding a wave of national media adulation, and talking about national issues, not anything of importance to this state.

    Get use to it. This is what it’s going to be like. SC and its issues are going to get the back of her hand.

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  129. Bart

    The right person to occupy the governor’s mansion was not elected today. He will have to wait and try again in 4 years. And, if Nikki Haley is not a good governor, she will be replaced by Sheehen in 2014. For now, I will give her the benefit of the doubt and hope for the best. If I spend all of my time being bitter and not staying involved.

    John Denver said it best many years ago when he was pushing for young people to get involved and vote. “If you don’t vote, don’t bitch”. I feel the same way about staying involved.

    The only comment I can make at this time about the Sheehen campaign is the eventual surrender to the negative ads and attacks on Haley did nothing but turn voters off. This is still South Carolina and in many ways, a sense of chivalry still exists and when Will Folks and the others brought their allegations to the forefront, it did nothing but drive a lot of voters to her corner and they stayed there. Then, when the negative ads started against her, it only reinforced the commitment made by her defenders and supporters.

    If Sheehen had been the positive candidate and let Haley be the negative campaigner, he would have won going away. He had the best message but it got lost in the mud and stayed there.

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  130. Barry

    This is ludicrous. Why isn’t she talking yet.

    I’m turning the tv off.

    She’s already screwed up. Didn’t take long.

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  138. Brad

    Folks, get it into your heads… Nikki DOESN’T CARE.

    She’s gotten what she wants from the SC electorate. Expect to get the back of her hand from now on.

    As we did during the campaign — it’s just that 51 percent of the electorate didn’t care.

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  141. Brad

    Someone in the studio asked why Henry made the introduction. Well, because he was the only establishment Republican to unabashedly support her.

    Notice how the others didn’t? And do you realize how extraordinary that is in GOP politics?

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  142. Barry

    @ Brad

    Notice she’s on that stage alone – with McMaster standing over to the side.

    No Republican leaders on the stage with her. No Republican Senators or House members. No local Republican leaders on the state.

    And quite frankly- the crowd sounds dead.

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  143. Barry

    @ Brad

    I’ll tell you now- my father told me this weekend he talked to an elected member of Congress (House) recently. He asked him about Ms. Haley and Mr. Sheheen.

    I’ll just say this- my dad went from supporting Ms. Haley to Mr. Sheheen. I won’t tell you who that House member told my father who he wanted to vote for…..

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  144. Barry

    She thanked Governor Sanford – first.

    (she didn’t mention he didn’t do anything productive in 8 years in office)

    then party officials

    then her consulting team

    her staff

    then her family

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  146. Nick Nielsen

    First Man? I thought that was Adam…

    I’m afraid of what her ‘historic’ is going to be. The return of the sales tax, no taxes on business, and nothing but cuts, cuts, cuts, in a budget that isn’t enough to run the state today.

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  147. Barry

    It was a tired speech.

    Tell Dawn Mercer ” She’s just won the race for Governor. She shouldn’t care what time it is”

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  148. Brad

    If Nikki’s speeches during the campaign had been like THAT, and Vincent’s speeches during the campaign had been like his concession speech, he would have won.

    But hey, coulda woulda shoulda: She had the energy when it counted.

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  149. Barry

    Kershaw County voted down the 1% sales tax increase.

    No new Elgin Library (that is badly needed)

    No infrastructure improvements to attract industry.

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  152. Brad

    Yes, indeed — about McMaster. The ONLY establishment Republican to back her.

    Well, folks, I’m home now. I want to thank y’all for participating.

    I’m going to have a couple of beers and try to wind down enough to go to sleep by 2 (I have to let that grande coffee I drank while we were first on the air wear off.) I think I’ll watch that first disc of the first season of “Breaking Bad.” Seems appropriate…

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  153. Brad

    In other words, good night. Any further comments will have to await sometime tomorrow to be approved. But hey, y’all are sensible folks. Most of you are asleep by now…

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  155. Tom Fillinger

    Brad – every person and issue correct and I don’t even have an “Editorial Board” to advise me and make sure I am ‘thinking’ correctly. It seems that the majority of the residents of the USA spoke with resolute clarity yesterday.

    My prayer is that now those entrusted with the sacred duty will do what they have been tasked to do LEAD!! God Bless AMERICA.

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  156. Maude Lebowski

    Anyone know which counties had the highest and lowest voter turnout? It looks like Lexington was highest with 56.21% but I only checked counties with higher populations.

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  157. bud

    The only surprise on election night was Harry Reid’s apparent victory. With very tight, and still undecided, elections in Alaska and Colorado the extreme Tea Party candidates did not fair particularly well. Even Haley won by a smaller margin than most analysts expected. Perhaps this will be the beginning of the end for the Tea Party. We can only hope.

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  159. Brad

    Well… now that you mention it… I’m going to be keeping a close eye on Ken Ard. Because I think there’s a good chance he’ll be governor before this term is out, for any one of a number of reasons.

    Folks, we really didn’t learn all that much about Nikki (and 51 percent of the electorate apparently didn’t learn anything). But the remarkable thing was that almost every one of the few things we looked at — her taxes, her employment record, her personal attitude toward transparency — pointed to a serious problem. What will we learn next?

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  160. Kathryn Braun Fenner (Mrs. Stephen A.)

    I met Ken Ard at Rotary. FWIW, he seemed pleasant and low-key; solid and appealingly boring. Not orange-y glad-handy like Joe Wilson, for example.

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  161. Kathy

    I suggested to people that they vote for the Lt Gov candidate that they would most like to see as Gov, since I believe there is a significant possibility that Ms Haley may be forced to step down. Of course, that would then force me to write, type, sing, and shout “I told you so” for a week or two. As a lifelong South Carolinian, I love this state very much even though I’ve been ashamed of her many, many times. I have NEVER been as ashamed and frustrated as I am today.

    Even though I have voted for some Democrats over the years, “Republicans for Sheheen” is the first Democrat’s bumper sticker I’ve ever placed on my car. I did what little I could to help Sheheen win. If there had been a little more time to get the truth out about Ms Haley, if Sheheen’s campaign had not been as lackluster as John McCain’s presidential effort, if, if, if…..Whatever. My head hurts, and I wish I could just stop caring about this pathetic state.

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  162. jfx

    “We want to be a great governor for you as we go forward…”

    Oh, good. She’s already mastered Darth Sanford’s royal “we”. The Force is strong with this one.

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  164. Kathryn Braun Fenner (Mrs. Stephen A.)

    Joe Wilson often has that fake-bake, spray-tan nearly George Hamilton glow–sure he plays a lot of golf–but there’s this stuff called sunblock, and I think, based on the shade he often is, he isn’t coming by that color solely through sun exposure.

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  166. Barry

    Sanford wanted to be a good governor

    he just wasn’t willing to do anything to make sure that happened.

    It’s like sitting in your recliner wanting to be a pro football player.

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