Finally looked at the Nancy Mace video. Wish I hadn’t…

65 Replies
Nancy Mace, in a photo from her campaign website.

Nancy Mace, in a photo from her campaign website.

Somebody brought this to my attention on Twitter last week. Seeing it was video, I didn’t click on it (I frequently check Twitter in places where that would be annoying to other people), and soon forgot about it.

That is, I forgot about it until Nancy Mace, as expected, won her runoff last night for the GOP nomination for Jim Merrill’s old House seat, District 99. Suddenly more people were mentioning the video.

So I went and found it.

First, for those who need reminding, Nancy is known for three things, mostly for the first:

  1. She was the first female cadet to graduate from The Citadel, back in 1999.
  2. She was Will Folks’ partner for a time in the FITSNews blog. Will handled the content, she dealt with the technical side. (At one point I met with her to ask how they worked that out, looking for ideas for turning this blog more into a business. I tried setting up something similar, but it didn’t work out.) Here’s Will’s coverage of her win last night.
  3. She was one of the crowd of folks who ran against Lindsey Graham in the primary last time around.

Now, conventional wisdom would have it that she’s positioned to cruise into the House. Because, you know, it’s a GOP seat, and they don’t draw them for Democrats to win.

There are only a couple of factors that might stand in the way of that. First, Democrats seem pretty enthusiastic about their candidate, Cindy Boatwright. Second, there’s that video, which has been mentioned quite a few times on social media since last night.

So I went back and looked at it. The first person you see is Nancy Mace:

Perhaps not wishing to share the part about “that’s not her husband… or a man,” a number of Democrats have Tweeted about it separately, especially in recent hours, now that they know whom they’re facing.

Here’s Cindy Boatwright’s statement:

I hope they can get to the point of discussing factors other than this between now and election day Jan. 16. But whether they do or not, this is likely to get interesting…

boatwright twitter

65 thoughts on “Finally looked at the Nancy Mace video. Wish I hadn’t…”

  2. Doug Ross

    Seriously? A dumb drinking stunt? THAT disqualifies someone from office according to Ms. Boatwright? Shocking? Has she ever been to a tailgate party at Clemson or USC? My heavens! I’m getting the vapors thinking about it.

    I’m amazed at all the phony outrage out there today…

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    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Do you actually think it’s phony? For that matter, do you think it’s outrage? To me, it’s more like… ugh, I wish I hadn’t seen it.

      You might be interested to know that you and Wesley Donehue — whom you’ve criticized a good bit in the past — are on the same page on this:

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    2. Doug Ross

      It’s absolutely phony outrage… and I hope there isn’t any video of Ms. Boatwright at and point in her life goofing around.. or… shudder.. taking a drink.

      Wesley is right on this.

      People are going insane. Last week, there was a whole fiasco about whether Sarah Huckabee Sanders had actually baked the pumpkin pie she tweeted a picture of. Actual journalists questioning the origin of the pie. And a week ago, the New York Times had an actual story about Trump drinking from a water bottle in the middle of a speech… and broke down how he held the bottle and that he took a second drink later on… you can’t make up this stuff — the media are deranged click whores.

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      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        Um… you did get that people wrote about the water thing because of the way Trump had made a big thing about Rubio taking a drink, right? It was a comparison begging to be made.

        From what little I know about the pie thing, though, that was ridiculous. Of course, if Trump’s spokeswoman has a poisonous relationship with the press corps, guess whose fault that is? Reporters don’t like people who get up every day and lie to them…

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        1. Doug Ross

          ” It was a comparison begging to be made.”

          No, it wasn’t. Nor was there any justification for the pie story. It’s petty, lazy, and unprofessional. But if you want to stoop to Trump’s level and get down in the mud, I’ll bet on him coming out on top. He’s a world class boor and verbal brawler.

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          1. Brad Warthen Post author

            Yeah, I kinda think you’re overreacting a bit.

            Also, I think maybe you think that some that is a sort of quirky feature angle is trying to be serious journalism and failing. It isn’t.

            I’m a hard news guy. Always have been. Back when I was a front-page editor, I would dutifully put something light on the page for the “mix,” but that wasn’t my thing.

            But there were little sidelights that would crop up that were fun to know and tell. We just put them in the paper. In the late 80s, I decided — despite being the hard news guy — that if reporters were coming back from the State House and sharing some fun tidbit, and it rapidly made the rounds of the newsroom, and everybody back at the State House was buzzing about it, then maybe, just maybe, we should share it with the readers.

            Back then, I had this whole extra open page that I had to fill in the Impact section (or was it the Insight section — it was different names at different places where I worked). It wasn’t hard news. It was a profile about someone in state government, and a column from Lee Bandy, and some reports from stringers in Georgia and North Carolina. Nothing there was competing for space with a serious news story.

            So I started this column that I called “Earsay,” just for these tidbits that reporters were always coming back with and not including in their stories because they didn’t fit. The water thing would have been the kind of color tidbit that would have fit perfectly in “Earsay.”

            With the arrival of the web and social media — a billion hungry beasts that never got full, since space is unlimited — all that kind of stuff and more migrated to online. Although I suppose in a way “The Buzz” at The State was initially sort of a great-grandchild of Earsay. At least, I think it started that way. Now, it seems to be filled mostly with regular political news stories…

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            1. Doug Ross

              Time is finite. To waste it on these trivial “stories” is unfortunate. Trump wastes 30 seconds writing a dumb tweet and then hundreds or thousands of people (AS PART OF THEIR JOB!) spend hours writing up responses to the tweet and responses to the responses. I guess that makes Trump one of the greatest job creators of all time. He saved Stephen Colbert’s career for sure.

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      2. Brad Warthen Post author

        As for this: “and I hope there isn’t any video of Ms. Boatwright at and point in her life goofing around.. or… shudder.. taking a drink.”

        I kind of doubt video of a stunt like this exists of her. Personally, I’m surprised this video exists of Nancy. Or anyone who has obvious political ambitions. (Judging by the T shirt on the second person in the video, this was taken in the last couple of years.)…

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                1. Claus2

                  Well that’s your opinion. McCain may have shook the spoiled brat image, but it was flipping a switch from spoiled brat to angry old man.

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                  1. Brad Warthen Post author

                    Yes, that’s the opinion of me and most observers — if you leave out Bud, Doug, the more partisan Democrats and the more extreme Republicans who hate him for being a moderate.

                    Leave out those categories, and I think you’ll find the consensus is that this is a guy we’ve watched mature rather dramatically…

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          2. Brad Warthen Post author

            Speaking of which… how do feel, as a libertarian, about being surrounded by cameras, as a libertarian?

            Yeah, I know — it’s not the government’s cameras, and that’s what libertarians mostly care about.

            But the government can’t hold a candle to the intrusion of millions of your fellow citizens on every moment you spend among other humans.

            Does that generate concern about privacy as well, or is it just if it’s the government?

            Personally, it creeps me out MORE — unlike with the government, there’s little or no chance of holding the average idiot with a camera, combined with his power to share what he shoots instantly with the whole planet, accountable. Even if the NSA is targeting me with bad intent, at least it’s usually in their interest to do so discreetly. I’m just wondering…

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            1. Doug Ross

              Doesn’t bother me if I am in public. Why would it?

              Your belief that we can hold the government accountable for unauthorized spying is so cute.

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  3. Richard

    ” Because, you know, it’s a GOP seat, and they don’t draw them for Democrats to win.”

    Jim Clyburn on Line 1.

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    1. Brad Warthen Post author

      Exactly. The GOP has packed every black voter they could into Clyburn’s district, so that they’ll have six districts sure to go Republican. As early as the ’90s, Clyburn was saying, “Uh, guys, I don’t really need this many safe Democratic votes…”

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        1. Brad Warthen Post author

          What numbers are you looking at? I’ve seen no indication of that. If he needs that many, someone would have come close to beating him. I can’t recall when that’s happened, for the simple reason that his district is so extremely gerrymandered that NO Republican has a chance…

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  4. Rose

    The germaphobe in me says, “Ewww! That’s so disgusting and unsanitary!!!!”
    As the designated driver at tailgates & parties for many years, I’m completely unsurprised. Also, that is very tame. But still disgusting and unsanitary.

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        1. Claus2

          If you do, make sure to bring your football bat with you. If you don’t have one Academy Sports has a whole section… just ask.

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    3. Brad Warthen Post author

      Yeah… you know, I did some pretty stupid stuff under the influence of beer in my college days. But nothing remotely like this ever, ever entered my mind or those of the people I was drinking with. I mean, what is the thought process (however fuzzy) that leads to someone doing this, or even proposing it? Had someone proposed this in my presence, I and probably everyone else at the table would simply have picked up our drinks and moved away…

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      1. Doug Ross

        I bet the guy in the video wouldn’t have participated if he had to pass along the shot to another guy. For me, this falls into the “Uh, no thanks” category rather than “I’m horrified and disgusted!!”

        Although 35 years ago, if you replaced the three women in the video with Cheryl Tiegs, Stevie Nicks, and Olivia Newton John, I’m not 100% sure I wouldn’t sit down at the table.

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  5. Riley

    Omg seriously … she cannot have a little fun sometimes? Give me a break. Family holiday drinking games and celebrating. Spare me. Nancy Mace is liberals worst nightmare! She is a regular person, she is very successful, she is beautiful, and worst of all she is conservative!….. sound the sirens or hurry dig up a video of her hanging out with friends at a house playing a drinking game lol nice try

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      1. Barry

        Nothing is more fun than playing “drinking games” where you french kiss your grandpa, and aunt sally.

        And that was railey’s defense?

        LOL

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  6. Dave

    With ALL of the problems that South Carolina faces, the idea that this drinking game video is worthy even of a blog post, let alone outrage at it, is remarkable. And I’m not anyone who would ever vote for Nancy Mace given her positions on the issues. Save the outrage for the state’s high rate of poverty, low rate of education, its problems with health care, etc., not for a drinking game video that should outrage no one.

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    1. Claus2

      It’s just Brad’s way of blanket characterizing all Republicans. If it were a James Smith video he’d do everything in his power to hide the video.

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          1. Brad Warthen Post author

            OK, I think I know what happened. Will means it was “provided” by this group that thinks my photo is “Exhibit A” in their effort to tie James to the Quinns. They’re the ones who grabbed it from my blog. Wow, if that’s “Exhibit A,” “Exhibit B” must be pitiful…

            I mean, what we have here is a case in which I said, “Whoa! Rick Quinn and James Smith at the same victory party! (Something I’d only say if that was an unlikely occurrence.)” And then they were good-natured enough to pose for me so I could document the occurrence.

            Yeah, boy: That’s some heavy-duty conspiracy y’all are onto there…

            Reply ↓
            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              As Will Folks puts it:

              Do we view this line of attack against Smith as legitimate?…

              Obviously the veteran lawmaker hasn’t been implicated in any way, shape or form in connection with the ongoing investigation, and unlike numerous other lawmakers (and former lawmakers) there’s been no suggestion he has done anything to warrant being under the #ProbeGate microscope.

              As for Smith’s clients … he’s an attorney. We’re not going to begrudge him for representing his clients faithfully….

              Makes sense…

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            1. Brad Warthen Post author

              Probably about as much as I read his.

              Because, basically, I don’t read blogs.

              I was embarrassed today when a friend told me he had discontinued his blog, and I let slip that I had not known that because, you know, I don’t read blogs.

              Unless someone calls my attention to a particular item on a particular blog (which is what happened in the case of this picture of mine he used), I don’t see them.

              I read (or at least peruse) several newspapers each day, but I’ve never made blogs part of that routine.

              Which is probably a handicap for me. If I were a regular reader, I might have a better sense of what people WANT in a blog. As it is, I’m always being surprised — when there’s a huge discussion of a subject I thought wasn’t great, or no discussion of something I had thought would be irresistible….

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              1. Brad Warthen Post author

                Actually, this has been kind of a big week of reading Will for me. I’ve looked at it twice, on this and his post about Nancy Mace’s victory. And in fact, that gives me an idea that will cause me to look at it a third time… I want to see what Will has done with his old partner’s video…

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                1. Brad Warthen Post author

                  No, I didn’t see anything about it, despite looking at several posts.

                  I would have thought he’d have written about it, and brushed it off the way Doug and Wesley Donehue have. But if he’s mentioned it, I’m not finding it. And I’m certainly not going to keep looking until I’m expected to PAY to look….

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                2. Richard

                  “And I’m certainly not going to keep looking until I’m expected to PAY to look….”

                  Just go into your Cookies and clear them for fitsnews.com and you’re good for another 14 days.

                  Next I’ll tell you how you can read The State for free.

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    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      Dave, since you and Doug both used the word, I have to wonder: Where did you see “outrage” in this post?

      I just read over it again. I don’t even see mild disapproval, much less “outrage.” The only things I say by way of commentary are that I “wish I hadn’t” watched it, and “this is likely to get interesting.”

      So… what are y’all talking about?

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      1. Doug Ross

        “Nancy Mace is totally unfit for public office. ”
        “Shocking”
        “We are fed up”

        None of those terms should be applied to a drinking game video. She’s overblown the whole thing… I’m more likely to believe she was thrilled to see the video as it gave her SOMETHING she could cling onto to try and win a Republican leaning seat.

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  10. Mike

    Just got the letter Nancy sent out. I was intriqued. She failed to mention who she was running against. I saw the video. Did she forget?
    Nancy…ah yeaaaa right.

    Reply ↓

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