Just saw this — significantly, while I saw it on thestate.com, it’s being reported out of The Associated Press’ New York office — and I’m thoroughly boggled yet again:
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is writing memoir
By HILLEL ITALIE – AP National WriterNEW YORK — Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has been busy trying to close her state’s $700 million budget gap, but she has found time for a more personal project, jotting down thoughts and memories during quiet moments in the early morning, late at night and on weekends.
She is writing a memoir.
“I will tell you that since the election it was amazing the number of people of people who wanted to know my story, about the challenges of growing up and the challenges of running for office and what got me through it,” the 39-year-old Republican, the nation’s youngest governor, told The Associated Press during a recent telephone interview….
Note that last bit: “the nation’s youngest governor.”
Indeed. She hasn’t done anything yet, and she’s writing a memoir!?!?!? Of what?!?!? I’ve known her for years, and nothing worth writing a book about has happened during that time. Maybe there’s a lot of fascinating stuff that happened before then, that I haven’t heard about — or heard her say over and over again on the stump. (You know the drill: “I’m the daughter of…,” etc.)
Of course, you know why she’s doing this, and why it’s being revealed through a national medium. For the same reason Mike Huckabee is doing a book tour, and Sarah Palin before him.
I hate even to write the words, but she thinks she’s presidential timber. There’s one thing that DOES set her apart, of course, and would be worth exploring in the book: She holds the record among SC governors for having her head turned by White House hubris. Our last four governors (each of them with less justification than his precedessor) all harbored presidential ambitions. But they, at least, waited until the got elected governor before contemplating such things. Not our Nikki. In her mind, she had already skipped over the whole being-governor thing about six months, and started looking beyond it, before she was elected.
I don’t know how much more of this I can stand. Remember my post the other day, listing three examples illustrating how “Our young governor’s presumption apparently knows no bounds?” Well, add this to the list.
A memoir. Sheesh.
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Sounds very much like Sarah Palin. We might get lucky when Nikki gets bored with “governing” and quits after two years.
Arrogant, ignorant and mean. That’s our girl.
Brad, maybe you’re making more of this than it really deserves. Sounds to me like she’s keeping a diary. Not sure why that’s an AP story though. Still, it’s not the type of thing that would change my opinion of her either way. Sort of like that weird Florida Senator who used to keep a record of everything he did. Can’t remember his name but he seemed like a bright guy with that one strange idiosyncracy.
Unbelievable. Dum Spiro Spero…
but this constant stream of nonsense is about to make me lose hope. I guess SC learned nothing from Sanford..What a mess and I fear it is going to get worse.
Her memoir can be placed on the “Shortest Books Published in South Carolina” along with:
“Favorite Day Hikes on The Appalachian Trail” by Mark Sanford.
“The South Lexington Beach Diet” by Jake Knotts
“Innovista Innovation: If You Build It, Nobody Will Come” by Bobby Harrell
“Defensive Driving Techniques” by Andre Bauer
“The Definitive List of Taxes I’d Like to Cut” by Brad Warthen
“Efficient Government” by Doug Ross
Doug, I love it! May I use those next time I have to do Health and Happiness?
Doug, that was great. Maybe we can all come up with one like:
“How to Lead a Virtuous Life”, by John Edwards
Or, “Sex and the Art of Hair Maintenance”..
I meant for John Edwards. Not, you know… Sheesh again.
Me,My Story,the Audacity of Audacity, by Nikki “the Putt-Putt Comet Queen.” Do we shelve this under romance, graphic novel, true crime, or just plain fiction? Or a new category, reality fiction–modern Southern politics.
First dibs on movie rights! It maybe best in animation.
Rabbithead,
But if Nikki quits, we’ll be left with Ard as Guvernot!
Nice, Lynn!
If I were a lawyer representing these politicians who wish to keep discoverable diaries, I would remind/teach them about this guy Richard Nixon, who recorded everything, except for 18 minutes, for posterity.
Can you really blame Haley for thinking big, in this current climate, where the weak GOP presidential field so far seems more suited for “Dancing With the Stars” than serious White House consideration? (can’t claim credit for that, it’s Mike Luckovich’s cartoon the other day:
http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2011/03/01/32-cartoon-mike-luckovich-on-gop-candidates/
With these buffoons running, in a party so bereft of seriousness and so resolutely know-nothing and anti-intellectual that Paul Ryan is what passes for a learned policy wonk, why not Nikki? Re Rabbithead’s comment, she seems particularly to be angling for the VP nod, to reprise Palin’s script while perhaps trying to avoid the errors of her role model.
Whatever she writes, it’ll probably be a fictional autobiography.
I would not buy her memoir either, until she is awarded a Nobel Prize for her accomplishments.
Bud, that was Sen. Graham from FL. One heck of a bright and knowledgeable guy though. It was probably the attorney side coming out, but his notes documented that the CIA did not brief the Intelligence Committee as they publicly stated.
I love your list Doug!
“Political Etiquette” by Joe Wilson
“Kicking and Screaming into the 20th Century” by the SC Legislature
Did anyone else catch this in the NY Times? http://nyti.ms/ezQy6X You might find it interesting, espcially her taks on another’s memoirs, and the answer to the last question.
Wow. The blustering character self-described in those answers bears practically no resemblance to the mild-mannered, demure Nikki Haley I used to meet with before she got this running-for-high-office notion sometime over the last two years — or rather, when the notion first became publicly manifest.
I just don’t recognize her any more.
“Religious and Cultural Tolerance” by Jakie “Raghead” Knotts.
Maybe she’ll remember some of those things she couldn’t seem to recall during the campaign about LMH and her fling with FITSNEWS boy.
WINNING!
Brad, looks like you are “armed” for Health and Happiness! 🙂
President Kennedy was the first presidential candidate that I remember who had written a book. Was it he that started the trend of having a book to define himself as a candidate?
Teddy Roosevelt outwrote them all. He was a prolific writer, but he had been writing and publishing all of his adult life.
“How to Get Your Priorities in Order” by Thomas Ravenel
“The Help” by Strom Thurmond and Essie May Washington