I thought this was good in The State‘s story about Vincent Sheheen running against Nikki Haley again. It quotes him as saying:
“The current administration and previous distraction have presented the same ideas and done the same things. It’s not just (about) Republican control, it’s this ideology of self-promotion and extremism that both Sanford and Haley have brought to the table that has occupied South Carolina’s government for 12 years.”
How very true. What he’s doing there is tapping into what so many Republicans (that is to say, the ones who’ve dealt with them) don’t much like about Nikki or Mark Sanford, either. They didn’t like that everything Mark Sanford did (from “look at me” stunts like bringing the pigs into the State House to his appearing on national FoxNews 46 times while fighting against stimulus funding) was about Mark Sanford, not about South Carolina or its Republican Party. If anything, Nikki Haley has taken that me-me-me approach to new depths.
So that was a highly relevant thing to take note of. I also like the reference to the Sanford administration as the “previous distraction.” It has the same tone of genteel disdain that I hear when South Carolinians speak of the 1860-65 conflict as “the recent unpleasantness.”
I hope to see more such perspicacity from young Mr. Sheheen this time around…
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Yeah, things were so much better under Jim Hodges and David Beasley. The good old days…
The question I have is whether anyone else will step up to challenge Sheheen in the Democratic primary. I’m sure there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes to try and prevent that from happening. A black challenger (other than Alvin Greene) would be interesting.
Doug,
I would assume that is why he announced at this early time – either to forestall a presumed competitor, or simply to make sure one didn’t pop up.
He came close last election, and now Haley has a record that she has to run on. What would really be interesting is if a Republican stepped up to challenge her in the primary.
Actually, things were a little better under Hodges and Beasley. I would never have thought it possible back when they held office — I didn’t think things could get worse than that — but Sanford proved me wrong.
But of course, I still count Carroll Campbell and Dick Riley as our last good governors.
David Beasley and Jim Hodges were notably more about trying to improve SC, by their lights, than Sanford. That doesn’t mean they were good at it, or used good judgment, but they were trying…
The only thing Jim Hodges did was saddle us with a ridiculous lottery that allowed the State Legislature an additional revenue stream to fund “education” so that they could spend the general fund money on other wasteful crap-ola.
In reality Hodges’ lottery merely allowed the cost of tuition and fees to increase at our bloated public college structure. I think that government sponsored gambling is inexcusable, and I have no problem with gambling.
Exactly, Silence.. it was all but to be expected that the $5000 LIFE scholarship that when implemented covered the cost of tuition for a year somehow now only covers half the tuition. Tuition inflation far exceeded normal inflation.
That plus the easy access to student loan money has resulted in rampant price gouging by the universities. It’s a bubble much like that created in the real estate market by giving unworthy borrowers mortgages.
It will be interesting to see the impact on universities when this bubble bursts. We’re close. $1 trillion in student loan debt.
My student loans are 1/3 paid off! Only another 20 years to go on them!
Not too soon, there are students in college who are not even remotely close to being prepared to attend college. Until lenders start screening applicants as to high school GPA, major declared, credit worthiness, and other things that are used in other loan qualifications things will not change. Government backed guaranteed loans are easy to approve. But when Joe/Jane Student tries to take out a loan for $30,000 to attend school for General Studies while having a 1.2 GPA and a $500/month car payment with no job things might get a little tighter.
My major complaint with the lottery is that not a penny of that money has gone to secondary education. K-8 gets its share, post-secondary gets its share, and college students get their share, but of all the millions spent on education from that lottery, none has gone directly to try to fix the problems in our high schools.
Something wrong with that picture…
I didn’t know that none was going to 9-12. Interesting.
Brad, if you’re going to be anything like the last campaign you’re going to approve of every single word that that comes out from the Sheheen camp. Last time Sheheen’s word was gospel on this blog.
Looking back, I don’t think I wrote enough about Vincent one way or the other. I was so busy being appalled at what Nikki was doing and saying…
I recall it being both, bashing Haley and praising the ground Sheheen walked on.
Carroll Campbell was a complete, total 100% disaster. Give me Nikki Haley any day.
David Beasley was a complete total 100% disaster. No votes for turncoats!
But, man, was he fast. What did he say he ran, a 9.9 100 yard dash?
I saw him in the parking lot at Riverbanks Zoo back when he was governor. He was getting into his car as I was loading my kids into our car. He gave me a look that said “You know who I am, right?” I think I let him down by not saying anything.
Our fastest governor.
I actually voted for Sanford over Hodges. One of my very rare votes for a member of the evil GOP.
What really bugged me about The State’s article this morning was that last quote from the College of Charleston professor. He says “She has been knocked down a lot, but she seems to always get right back up.” He seems to believe that Haley’s sizable negative ratings are do to actions of others, when in fact most of Haley’s problems are self-inflicted e.g. the Savannah River debacle, replacing Darla Moore at USC with a nobody, opposing the Amazon deal, and having a completely hostile and alienating attitude toward the state legislature.
The quote should be,”She has tripped up a lot, but she seems to always get right back up.”
Didn’t Beasley also run a sub 4 minute mile?
I believe that was Danny Frazier.
Ahhh… that reminds me of what irritates me about that and thousands of other political news stories. It has a lot to do with why I left news and moved to editorial in 1994.
One of the cheesiest conventions in news is calling up a political science professor to get him to say what the reporter knows to be true, but isn’t allowed to say because that would be “opinion.”
That particular quote perhaps isn’t the best example of what I’m saying, but you got me thinking about this peeve of mine…
Okay, let’s try this a 2nd time. You liked a comment that came out of the Sheheen camp… color me shocked.
What are you trying a second time?
Me asking if you’re going to go on another “oh boy is Sheheen great” kick and write a minute-by-minute commentary on Sheheen’s every move and comment. The last time he ran for governor, you’d think, well when reading this blog, that he was the next coming of Obama.
No, you would only have thought that from the comments of Nikki Haley, who almost never mentioned either Vincent Sheheen or South Carolina, but kept saying, “Obama, Obama, Obama!”
It’s the “Sweathog” camp, stop calling it the Sheheen camp. And his name is Vinnie or Babarino. Up your nose with a rubber hose.
In unrelated news, Jane Fonda tells Vietnam Vets to “get a life”.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/04/11/jane-fonda-tells-veterans-boycotting-her-movie-butler-to-get-life/
Related to what? Did you meant to put that on some other post?
How is “unrelated” related?
“Unrelated” as in, news of some interest.
It’s a thread jack. SDII does that.
There’s a joke here: If your Uncle Jack helped you on an elephant….
This Sheheen quote is particularly damning:
Vincent Sheheen said “In 2010, I ran because I thought I was best choice for governor, and I think, over the past three years, Nikki Haley has pretty much proven that.”
What would Vincent have done differently over the past three years? I’d love to see him respond to the last state budget and tell us what he would have vetoed (if anything) as governor. That would be a good test of his abilities.