Just got this from Amy Sheheen, as in, Mrs. Vincent:
Brad,
I know you don’t hear from me much but I just had to write on this special occasion. Today is Vincent’s 43rd birthday, and I was hoping you’d help me wish him a happy birthday!
Vincent has had a busy year trying to make South Carolina a better place for everyone. From working hard in the state Senate to giving it his all on the campaign trail, he is fighting for each of us.
Vincent told me that tomorrow is a huge fundraising deadline for the campaign to fight back against the vicious attack ads. Your support means a lot, so I was hoping you would help me make this an extra special birthday by contributing $43 by midnighttonight in honor of his 43 years!
With the campaign season really ramping up, every dollar counts! Vincent has given so much to South Carolina that today, on his birthday, I hope you’ll join me in showing how much we appreciate his passion.
Please join me in surprising Vincent on his big day by contributing $43 (or really whatever you can!)Thanks for helping make Vincent’s birthday a great one,
Amy
Forty-three? Is that all? Y’all know I think a lot of young Vincent, but is that really enough life experience to be governor of our state? Mind you, the incumbent is even younger than that.
A bit more gravitas would really be nice.
Why don’t more accomplished people run for the highest office in the state? I mean, aside from the fact that the office doesn’t carry with it the power needed to do a proper job.
One more thing: All of you gubernatorial candidates — get offa my lawn!
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We need younger people, not older. Older people = old ideas, same ideas, resistance to change. That’s the problem with this state.
I hate to break it to you but you (and me as well) are getting older. Our ways are going to be replaced just as we will be replaced. Our relevance will diminish year by year. I am already invisible to any female under the age of 40. Hand over the reins to people with energy and new ideas instead of being a curmudgeon clinging to the good old days.
And I can’t begin to express how nauseating that email is… I am embarrassed for Vincent Sheheen that he would put his name on such drivel begging for money. And as a guy who reportedly makes $400K per year to use his wife to try and scam money out of people is beneath contempt. I now hope he gets his butt handed to him in November.
Age is just a number. I don’t care whether someone running for office is 43 or 63, what I’d prefer to see is new, fresh faces. Not the same old re-treads being reelected over and over. Which is both the source of, and the result of our resistance to change problem.
You’d think that Vincent could self-fund a campaign by now, of course he wouldn’t put HIS money on the line for it. That’s the taxpayers’ job…
Why would Vince bet his own money on a loser? I am starting to think he’s seeing the handwriting on the wall and will just coast into November, take his beating like a man, and then head back to Camden.
Whereas I want to see someone who’s been around and knows a few things.
Following y’all’s preference to the logical conclusion, we should just pick somebody at random off the street to be governor. That might sound good to you, but that’s because neither of you has ever been assigned to do man-on-the-street interviews, and had to struggle to find somebody who had a clue about anything.
The more people you try to discuss important issues with a wide array of people — on the street or in the board room or wherever — the more you come to value someone who has both experience and understanding…
Brad, not at random at all. What I’d like to see for governor, congressman, senator, mayor, whatever, is someone who has been successful in other areas of life that is willing to set aside two terms to lead, then pack back up and go home. A citizen-candidate, not a perennial politician.
Who said anything about a random man on the street? I want the best, smartest, most energetic people to be in charge. You apparently don’t think people hit their peak until they start collecting a state pension.
How inept were you at age 43?
I think 43 is plenty old enough. Indeed, I think plenty of 35 year olds are wiser and more mature than plenty of folks twice their age.
Agreed, Kathryn. The transformation in this country on race, marriage equality, abortion, legalizing pot, etc. isn’t coming from the old folks.
I don’t see an Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. coming out of the mind of a 60 year old.
Oh, and to make sure everyone understands…
I’m not saying Vincent’s too young to be governor, or Nikki either. I was really kind of kidding around with this post, which I hoped the “get offa my lawn” at the end would indicate.
But when you say you prefer less-experienced people, that’s when you get an actual, serious argument from me…
Less experienced at what? Running a state? Being in the State House?
All your faves started as young bucks. Graham, McCain, Obama…
A quick search on the internet tells me that most of our previous governors took office when they were about the same age.
Johnston – 38
Maybank – 39
Thurmond – 44
Byrnes – 67 (An anomaly, he had already served in the US House, Senate and Supreme Court and was US Secretary of State)
Hollings – 37
Russell – 56
West – 47
Edwards – 47
Riley – 46
Campbell – 46
Beasley – 38
Hodges – 42
Sanford – 42
It will be interesting to see if Generations X and Y are squeezed since they are smaller than the Baby Boomer generation and the succeeding generations. Have you read Christopher Buckley’s hysterical novel, “Boomsday”?
I
Haha, there are 84 million “Gen X’ers” and only 76 million “baby boomers.” Gen Y is around 80 million as well.
Read Boomsday.. everything Buckley writes is good stuff.
“Why don’t more accomplished people run for the highest office in the state? ”
More accomplished, credible, and thoughtful people can’t afford to run because of how we finance campaigns. Money talks/propagandizes these days.
And age doesn’t matter, imho.
I believe there are a number of qualified individuals who would make very good gubernatorial candidates and likely do a decent job if elected, but who wants to have their every flaw exposed and exaggerated in the primary and general election processes? I wonder how many people are scared off by the thought that a past mistake irrelevant to a political position they could be seeking is going to be held up for everyone – including children, grandchildren and/or parents – as part of the usual political jockeying that goes on all the time? No, thanks.
Here’s a followup today from Sheheen:
These appeals read as though they were written by the same people who write the DCCC appeals — project a faux personal face, raise up a boogeyman on the other side (in this case, those awful pro-Haley ads), and ask for money.
It all fits in with this disturbing sense I have that Sheheen has a nationalized, generic Democratic campaign that is no more about South Carolina than the Haley campaign is. Which I think is bad news for South Carolina, and does Sheheen no good, either.
I got that, too. First thing I thought was: Wait! Did I accidentally give him money last night? Why am I getting a “thank-you” e-mail?
He ought to be ashamed of himself to even be associated with this garbage. What’s next?
“My son said “Daddy, why are Republicans so mean to you?” and I told him, “Son, it’s because people aren’t willing to give me money so I don’t have to raid your trust fund.” Do you want my son to be disappointed in his father? Do you? Really? Send me money. Now! Or I shoot the family dog. It’s up to you.”
When you said “shoot the family dog,” you should have linked to this.
By the way, as further proof that Google now READS MINDS, I share the following: When I went to look for that image, I started to type “or we’ll shoot this dog”… but I only got as far as “or we'” before Google knew EXACTLY what I wanted, and even corrected my own memory of the quote from “shoot” to “kill.”
That. Is. Creepy…