James Smith’s comments about Nikki Haley and “corruption” should also be taken within the context of the above ad from the Democratic Governor’s Association.
Meanwhile, with the video below, Haley supporters show that they want to run against Barack Obama again. But at least this ad mentions Sheheen, which is something.
How do the ads strike me? As I indicated earlier, I’m a little leery of the word “corruption.” Yeah, Nikki Haley has a serious transparency problem, she’s not very good at paying her taxes on time, and that $40k she got from Wilbur Smith when she was in the House raises a questions that have not yet been answered. But “corruption” is a word I tend to use for something more overt, more red-handed. Early in my career, back in Tennessee, I saw out-and-out corruption — Gov. Ray Blanton selling pardons. He went to prison for it. Maybe that made me overly fussy. The things the DGA are citing here are real problems, and they provide us with plenty of reason not to vote for Nikki Haley; I’m just quibbling over the word.
The Sheheen/Obamacare ad is just disgraceful. But then, so is the governor’s position of refusing to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid, so I see it entirely in that context. For me, her position is indefensible, so the ad is as well. Then there’s that additional ugliness of playing to the fact that “Obama” is the boogeyman to so many white voters in South Carolina. “Obamacare” is used as an incantation, with the operative ingredient being “Obama,” not the “care.” The issue is secondary to the fact that that awful Obama person is associated with it.
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Oh, and before some of you misread my statement that Obama “is the boogeyman to so many white voters in South Carolina,” and say that I’m saying anyone who opposes his policies is a racist, let me just head you off at the pass…
I didn’t say anything about motives. What I stated was a fact. Among a huge portion of white voters in South Carolina, the name “Obama” is fraught with negative connotations, to the point that you can discredit a policy by attaching his name. Whatever the underlying reasons for that reaction, that’s a fact. You do not find the same phenomenon among black voters in SC — at least, not to any degree that it would be a relevant factor in a political campaign.
You also don’t find the same phenomenon with whites to vote for a white candidate, how many black voters voted for Obama just because of his skin color? When it actuality he’s only half-black, and that half abandoned him when he was born and he was raised by the white-half.