TweetMaybe this doesn’t mean a thing, but it struck me… Remember when I told you yesterday about Bobby Harrell’s overwhelming re-election as Speaker? I mean, we had expected Nancy Pelosi’s coronation as Minority Leader, but Bobby’s win was much more convincing than hers. (Harrell won 112-5 over a challenger who had been much touted as […]
TweetGina reported a minute ago that Speaker Harrell was “overwhelmingly re-elected, 112 to 5, over Ralph Norman.” As we expected. But that’s not what interests me today. What interests me is the sort of rhetoric Norman was using going into this vote: “In 2011, if (House members) give lip service to conservative values but don’t […]
TweetRight after the election, I noticed a Nikki Haley bumper sticker, and it struck me that I hadn’t seen a whole lot of those during the election, which caused me to Tweet: Ever notice how you see more bumper stickers for a candidate AFTER he/she wins than you did before Election Day? I do… It […]
TweetIn case you wonder whether our governor has gotten over the narcissism that turned out to be his tragic flaw, check out this reTweet I received early today: RT @NYTimesOnline After a Personal Scandal, a Small Political Upswing http://ow.ly/19TOf6 It leads to a story about how Mark Sanford is bouncing back from that little detour […]
TweetI read the 2nd reading at Mass yesterday, in Spanish, and doing so reminded me of something I read on another blog last week… Just for those of you who still care — perhaps out of morbid fascination — what Will Folks has to say about Nikki Haley, I share this. It was Will’s entire […]
TweetYesterday I got this kind note from a schoolteacher: Mr. Warthen, For years I have quoted an article you wrote for the state newspaper entitled, “Put Parents in Charge isn’t a ‘voucher bill’ it’s something much worse” to my public speaking classes as they begin persuasive arguments and to my friends and family who insist […]
TweetIn the newspaper biz, a “stand-alone” is a picture that has no story with it. I’m still looking back at Tuesday night, and pondering a photo that embodies another sense of “stand-alone”… As we were waiting… and waiting, and waiting… for Nikki Haley’s victory speech that night, someone in the WIS studio wondered aloud why […]
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 Yesterday, a colleague pointed out to me that if you search for “Nikki Haley” at Google images, you get, amid a sea of actual picturesof Nikki, a picture of Tina Fey linking to a blog post of mine from January 2009. I forgot about it until I was looking for a certain image of Nikki this […]
TweetLast night, when it was all over, I was struck by two things: How much better Vincent Sheheen’s concession speech was than any speech I heard during the campaign, and how much worse Nikki’s was. As I said on the air last night, that “victory” speech was so… low… energy. The people in the studio […]
TweetMy good friend Kevin Hall — you know Kevin; he’d probably be state Republican chairman now if a health problem hadn’t arisen (he’s much better now, I’m very happy to say) — was quite pleased with the election results today. But he was having to face a sober reality on one front: He owes me […]
TweetThere are thousands of people at the polls right now voting for Nikki Haley in spite of all the powerful, objective reasons not to, because they think all those bad things they’ve heard are just some unfair, partisan attempt to smear her. Listen to them; that’s what they think. That’s because they are either not […]
TweetFirst, several quick Tweets I wrote while standing in the queue: Standing in a moderately long line at Quail Hollow precinct (I’ve seen longer). 400 voters so far. Man who just left said it took an hour… Close to 500 voters have shown up so far at Quail Hollow at noon. Veteran poll worker says […]
TweetBack in 2008 when we endorsed John McCain, some of you pointed out how much of an outlier we were, since most papers across the country went with Obama. You were right to do so, because that was meaningful. I realize that it’s axiomatic among the kinds of people who will turn out in enthusiastic […]
TweetThis is not good news for Vincent Sheheen — and therefore, not good news for South Carolina. Of course, you might shoot holes in the date from which I draw my conclusion, but I thought I’d share it with you anyway. Going into October, I felt like Vincent would have to grab voter attention in […]
TweetI did another guest piece for The Shop Tart over the weekend. Basically, it was a column on politics for people who are (at least theoretically) more interested in shopping and eating out. You may recall when I did this earlier, just before the Columbia city election. It wasn’t one of my best efforts, but […]
TweetThe agenda got overcrowded at today’s Columbia Rotary Club meeting, and Health and Happiness got squeezed out — which was kind of a relief to me, because I hadn’t come up with anything funny. Instead, this is what I had prepared: Health and Happiness November 1, 2010 I initially asked President Robin to make room […]
TweetA couple of days ago, I was talking with a good friend — a very conservative Republican leader, a longtime close ally of Mark Sanford — about politics and mentioned the proposed penny sales tax increase for transportation in Richland County. He said, derisively (but in a friendly way), something along the lines of, “And […]
TweetVincent Sheheen talks a lot about how he would emulate Carroll Campbell on economic development and other issues. That’s not just some line to hoax the yokels. Two top business supporters of Campbell (and Thurmond and Dole and other Republicans) have officially endorsed his candidacy, including a former commerce secretary from a GOP administration: GOP […]
TweetCatching up on my e-mail, I just got to this one from this morning: SHEHEEN CAMPAIGN WELCOMES FATHER OF MANDATED HEALTHCARE TO SC Camden, SC—Today, the Sheheen for governor campaign welcomes former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney to South Carolina, where he is campaigning with Nikki Haley. Romney, who has contributed over $60,000 to Haley’s campaign, […]