TweetWas struck by this letter in The State this morning: Francee Levin (“State right to fly USC flag,” Monday), the NAACP and others who mischaracterize the Tea Party movement need to stop listening to the liberal media and maybe attend a Tea Party rally for themselves. I’ve attended several at the State House, and the […]
Tweet First, I have to say that I didn’t stay for the whole thing. I was going to, but I got an emergency call from my youngest daughter just after 6 — she was on the side of the road on I-26 between the I-20 and St. Andrew’s exits with an overheated engine — so […]
Tweet Catching up with stuff now I’m back at the office, here is a copy of Barack Obama’s wonderful victory speech from Saturday night. That is, this is a copy of the prepared remarks. You can view the video here: Remarks of Senator Barack Obama South Carolina Primary Night Saturday, January 26th, 2008 Columbia, South […]
Tweet “Well this has, without a doubt, been the friendliest debate I’ve ever experienced,” said moderator Avery Wilks just before closing arguments in the 2nd Congressional District debate Monday night. “We didn’t use a single rebuttal to address a personal insult, so I appreciate that from both candidates.” Avery got that right. Of course, it […]
Tweet Someone knocked urgently on the door that leads in from the garage while I was having a late lunch yesterday. It was my friend and neighbor John Culp, and he had brought me a Judd Larkins yard sign. Well, it’s about time. I got James Smith and Jaime Harrison signs for him back in […]
Tweet Pew Research Center keeps trying to figure out what Americans really think. I’m aware of three different sets of political “typologies” the organization has created in recent years. I appreciate that, although personally I kind of liked the first one. Maybe it’s just that I preferred where the country was politically at that time. […]
Tweet The last few days, I’ve been increasingly conscious of just how momentous this primary is today. I’ve felt the weight of it more and more. I can’t think of a time when South Carolina played such a dramatic role in the selection of a president. Which is a big deal in and of itself. […]
Tweet I thought this was pretty dumb: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Democratic Coalition Urges People to #BlackoutTrump During Speech Tonight February 28th, 2017 – Washington, DC – The Democratic Coalition, part of Keep America Great PAC, today called on people to skip watching President Trump’s address to Congress. Using the hashtag #BlackoutTrump, the organization urged Americans […]
Tweet I was interested to read, in today’s excerpt of Jim Clyburn’s book in The State, the congressman’s account of his disagreement with the Clintons just before the 2008 SC presidential primary: That charge went back to an earlier disagreement we had about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s suggesting that, while Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had […]
Tweet I don’t have time today to go into great depth on this, but I thought I’d share several scattered thoughts I had about the governor’s speech and reactions to it, each of which could be developed into an extensive post on its own: I was pleased that she was willing to share credit on […]
TweetLast night was the annual Cardinal Bernardin lecture over at USC, and on my way in to hear Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta speak, Florence attorney and longtime USC Trustee Mark Buyck asked me what was going to happen in the presidential race. I told him what I said in this post, that it […]
Tweet Back when he was elected governor in 2002, Mark Sanford was an outlier in the Republican Party. He called himself a “conservative,” but his words and actions in his first months in office made it increasingly clear that he was not that at all, but was a rather extreme libertarian — which is to […]
TweetThought this was interesting. A public school administrator in Texas penned a letter (last year, but I didn’t see it until now), based on that written by South Carolinian William Barret Travis from the Alamo, describing how he was besieged by ideological “reformers” in his state. Will anyone ride to his rescue? And if he […]
TweetHere’s what Rick Perry had to say this morning (the prepared remarks, anyway): NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – Below is the text of Gov. Perry’s speech today. *NOTE: Gov. Perry sometimes deviates from prepared remarks. Thank you. As I have stated numerous times on the campaign trail, this campaign has never been about the candidates. I […]
TweetYesterday I was so busy running from one candidate event to another that I didn’t have time to write about any of them. I left the last one while Rick Santorum was still talking, and grabbed a late dinner and packed and hit the sack for about five hours sleep. So here are some brief […]
Tweet On the morning after the photo-finish in Iowa, The New Yorker is waxing deeply philosophical: What will be more telling, perhaps, is how the Republican candidates, in the primaries and caucuses to come, address the ideals and most personal beliefs of others. A party whose base has increasingly been oriented around the interests of […]
Tweet Watch the full episode. See more SCETV Specials. EDITOR’S NOTE: THERE IS A SERIOUS ERROR BELOW, WHICH I HAVE NOW CORRECTED. PLEASE SEE THE CORRECTION POST. Been trying all day to get to Nikki Haley’s speech last night. Here are a few quick observations: First, the style: Nikki is a WAY better speaker than […]
TweetHere are the brief remarks I prepared this morning for my election post-mortem address to the SC Telecommunications Association‘s Fall Conference at the Radisson. I had planned to just jot down some notes in my notepad over breakfast, but chickened out and, before leaving the house, typed out the following to read. Of course, most […]
Tweet There was no question that Joe Wilson should have apologized to the House for violating its rules and just generally for conduct unbecoming a gentleman (and unbecoming Joe Wilson, if you know him — he’s generally a gentle man). Barack Obama was not the only person insulted by “You lie!” If you insult a […]
Tweet Well, I saw something I've never seen before at my Rotary Club, to the best of my memory (and fellow Rotarians, correct me if I'm wrong): Our main speaker got THREE standing ovations — before he started speaking, in the middle of his remarks, and when he finished. I've seen some war heroes and […]