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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

What is it About South Carolina’s Male Politicians?

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  June 9th, 2010 at 10:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I realize they don’t like getting beaten by a woman and Nikki Haley is the first woman in South Carolina to get so far, but Gresham Barrett is off to a rough start in the runoff.

First Barrett says character is all that counts:

“Character is not one of the things that matters,” he
said. “It’s the only thing that matters.”

Then he immediately tells a lie that he has heard from no one about pulling out of the race.

Then, of course, he moves right into the “I’m a Christian” rhetoric that the Bauer campaign started to try to paint Nikki Haley as something other than a Christian.

Mathematically, it is possible for Barrett to win. But in reality, short of a major scandal taking out Haley, it is impossible for Barrett to win. The Republican Governors Association is already treating Haley as the winner. The rest of us should too.

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COMMENTS

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  • michiganwolverine

    Maybe it was Barrett who was responsible for the smears against Hayley.

    It might actually be good to have this two week runoff period. Then we can see what else Barrett has to say and who McMasters and Bauer endorse.

  • http://www.reddogreport.com reddogreport

    A solid Christian man would see to it that no scandals broke out and that the next two weeks is only about the issues.

    That being said, I wonder what the first “scandal” will be and how soon before it breaks.

    Sigh.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    that voted for the also rans in the first go-round?

    This is not the scenario that the rule-makers had in mind when the runoff condition was instituted

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    Jim Hodges, Jim DeMint, and all the others that haven’t besmirched the name of Nikki. Squeaky wheels get grease. The PEOPLE of SC chose Haley overwhelmingly just as they chose Bush over McCain due to the issues of McCain’s non-straight talk on taxes and abortion in 2000 and not a lone rouge that sent out smears on a fax machine.

    SC male pols are not defined by the bad ones except by media types and liberals and others that like to play gotcha. These types are really bigots that like to smear whole classes of people based on a few.

    The liberal creeps in all states and esp the one in the White House are given cover by the media for their vile musings every day. Some of their musings that slander us are considered mainstream conventional wisdom.

    Thus ends the defense of the male pols of SC.

    I used to be one.

  • http://pocketchangeproductions.net/ anotherindyfilmguy

    apparently this guy thinks it’s still the early 1980′s when voters had to take his word for things while the media helped him lie…

  • Adjoran

    Of course the establishment in both parties hopes he can pull it out. He isn’t their creation, but they believe they can sufficiently manipulate or marginalize him so as to quickly get back to their corrupt “business as usual.”

    I understand he’s invested over a year of his life campaigning hard for this office, and it is hard to let go. But if he follows through with it, his ONLY chance is a low-down dirty campaign. He’ll have to call on Bauer and his team for help. And where is his money going to come from?

    If Barrett hopes to run for another office as a Republican from SC in the next ten years or so, he should rethink his plans and drop out now.

  • pennsylvaniayankee

    A Republican politician is exploiting the fact that a candidate is not white and insinuating that the candidate is not Christian. Dear heavens! Wherever would he have picked up that dastardly strategy.

  • crassus

    I should begin by noting that I support him. Also though, I think it is very important that either he or Haley wins the seat in November. However, the Democrat does not have a chance either way. Additionally, Barrett has not at all been engaged in the attacks- that has been Bauer. And Erick, I don’t see the benefit of engaging in the lefts “they don’t like a woman” stuff. One could just as easily say that about Chuck DeVore v. fiorina. We should also note that when DeMint won the senate primary in 2004, in the 1st rd he only got 25% and his opponent got 38%. So, yes, it’s a long shot for Barrett, but there is no reason to give up. It can’t hurt anything. He’s not some treacherous Crist type.

  • redtillimdead

    In his runoff ad, he made a subtle reference to Haley’s “affairs”. He said “Christian family man who won’t embarrass us”. Anyone else see it?

  • Adjoran

    Haley at 49% needs only to increase her share of the vote by 1%. Barrett needs to increase his share by 214%.

    Now, the history of run-offs in SC shows a drop-off in turnout, because usually the followers of the also-ran candidates are discouraged.

    DeMint’s 2004 primary comeback win was not at all comparable. There, the leader with 38% was former Governor David Beasley, who was not a favorite of conservatives. The supporters of the other candidates were highly motivated to prevent Beasley from taking the seat, and turned out for DeMint.

    Haley has created no such animus, except perhaps among those who resent her facing down Bauer at the last debate and exposing him for the lowlife lying worm he is. Plus she nearly won a majority the first time around. No comparison with Beasley.

    But if Barrett has the money and wants to spend it, he has earned the privilege. Let him take notice, however: much more of his oh-so-subtle-hinting with phrases like “I’m a Christian gentleman who won’t embarrass us” and he will cause a lot of us to write him off forever. His career as a viable statewide candidate will be done.

  • thegoodfight

    once she’s in office, will the men let her govern? In my circles here in SC, I found women incredibly supportive of her, but men – not so much. The state legislators don’t like her & believe she will be a female Sanford. I think she will go in with 2 legislative strikes against her – gender and political philosophy. But it’s time for someone to shake things up at the State House – give ‘em heck, Nikki!

  • jerseydevil

    WAKE UP!

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100609/ap_on_el_se/us_us_senate_sc

    Unknown Senate candidate in SC faces felony charge

    I can not believe this is happening in that lovely state!

  • sccrenny

    just don’t want to turn loose. South Carolina is making a mighty effort to wrest control from their grubby little hands one finger at a time. Our state is a microcosm of the rest of the country performing under a microscope. And the media and the rest of the country, as usual, are having too much fun with us to be fair and balanced.

    While the Tea Party is being widely portrayed and accepted as ignorant and uninformed at best, or racist and evil more likely, they are largely if not solely responsible for propelling a woman- a daughter of Sikh parents who migrated here- into the probable governorship of this state.

    And even the fact that an absolute unknown who has a criminal charge pending has won the Dem nomination for Senate is being blamed on the GOP rather than the electorate who blindly voted for him (for whatever reason- I’m still trying to figure that one out).

  • phatphan

    I wouldn’t be so quick on my insinuations because of glass houses, etc. – - you know? Especially considering the trigger-quick playing of the race card against Republicans by libs like you who live in those houses, Know what I mean?

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …shouldn’t use emails that will show up on future resume searches to call one of the two major American political parties a bunch of racists.

    Dear me, what are they teaching them in schools these days?

    Now shoo before I decide to get mean.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …I’d suggest that he drop out of the race, apply for a position in the Haley administration*, and challenge Graham for Senate in four years. That would probably be the most profitable long-term scenario for him, and it’d certainly keep his reputation intact.

    But (as to the latter, at least) so would running a clean runoff, and it *is* his right to run in it.

    Moe Lane

    *Please note that I have no ability to offer such a position, and no advance knowledge about whether such a position would be offered; and that ethically speaking no negotiations should be made in advance of Barrett dropping out of the SC-GOV race.

  • tngal

    Perhaps he’s hoping someone will consider it one of his defining signature decisions.

  • tngal

    Perhaps he’s hoping someone will consider it one of his defining signature decisions.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    and the perfectly civil race against Strom’s son.

    I just don’t like overly broad headlines that stereotype my native state esp since I have been praising race relations there to my Atlanta friends and esp to many for 5 years here at Redstate who live up North, know hardly any black folks and yet think they are race relation experts.

    Couldn’t we just as easily see a headline praising the male politicians in SC that back Haley and Scott? That praise the voters that chose Haley and Scott.

    Why not headlines that ask what’s wrong with male pols in:

    AR (Clinton etc)
    NY (Cuomo, Spitzer, et al)
    Mass (Kerry, The Swimmer, et al)
    Illinois (Obama…ned I say more? Ok, Blogo…)

    See my point about the media and headlines.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    he is dead to me.

  • tngal

    So, they can either get behind her policies or they can try to sabotage any serious efforts to fix the problems. I’m with you, on this. Will the men let her lead and help in that effort?

    Chris Christie (our hero!) can pull if off in Jersey, but for Haley she ‘s going to need the backing of some of those g.o.b.s

    FTR, Christie could do it by himself, with both arms and legs cut off, and just his trusty armor to save him from the onslaught.

  • earlgrey

    Not as much as I would like, but some. What do you think his chances are? I have always heard that SC is very divided along racial lines, but I heard this from a lib. I am obviously not a resident.

    However, I was a fan of the SC Gamecock’s when Lou Holtz was coaching. I have always liked him becuase he looks like an accountant or something boring, but is a great football coach.

  • ZootSuit

    I would definitely not classify Strom Thurmond and John C. Calhoun as “fine” male South Carolina politicians. Even aside from the opposition to the positions they held — and perhaps surprisingly, I actually find some but definitely not all of Calhoun’s political theories very interesting — both Strom Thurmond and John Calhoun used the political tactics that Nikki Haley’s opponents are now using. Both used the type of “whistle words,” demagoguery and outright racism/sexism that we are justly condemning for being used by Nikki Haley’s opposition now.

    Quite frankly, we have no moral grounds to condemn such tactics when used against people we support like Nikki Haley unless we are willing to condemn such tactics when they were and are used by the people we ourselves oppose.

  • ZootSuit

    The answer is, “No.”

    They did not let Mark Sanford govern, so why would they let Nikki Haley?

  • earlgrey

    By normal thinking people, I am referring to my Mom. She has for all her adult life worked election day for the Republican party, until recently as she is getting older.

    She was talking to me yesterday about “how that woman that Jenny Sanford was campaigning for had a scandal of her own”. My mom does not have cable, and does not surf the web, but I was shocked.

    I informed her that the two accusers were ugly trolls that worked for other campaigns and were no position to be able to advance Haley’s career (no motive)

    It really bugs me that we can’t get the truth out there.

  • jenniferjmilleresq

    women voters who can’t pull the lever for her because she has little kids. I have already heard of two friends who felt that way, most don’t. It’s also aimed at conservative Christian voters who pull the lever based on religious beliefs and other personal things. I think he’s underestimating the vast majority of us though. The traditional accepted knowledge among political operatives about S.C. voters’ gullibility isn’t holding true this year.

  • jenniferjmilleresq

    Just saw this quote from Barrett’s campaign which pretty much says itall:

    “People are angry, and they are irrational,” explains Warren Tompkins, a consultant for Representative J. Gresham Barrett, who finished a distant second in the primary and will face Haley in the June 22 runoff. “They are voting on emotion and not anything else.”

    Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1995597,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0qTNJYvXs

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    treatment of women, which is what the current headline “controversy” concerns.

    I do think that Strom’s actions since the mid-60s has been repentive and exemplary, maybe best exemplified with his hiring of Armstrong Williams as the first black legislative aide by a Southern Senator. While a Dem in the early 90s, I dealt with Williams/Thurmond on legal matters with the govt and met Armstrong in the Senate office in DC on a lobbying trip.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    speaks volumes in favor of a little secret I have known for 25 years: SC and the South are light years ahead of most of the country on racial harmony. Media stereotypes be damned.

    There is a special place in the Roost up yonder for those that love the fighting chickens! God bless.

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    liberals, Democrats, threatened establishment types

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine

    understand that

    the last virgin under the age of 18 in Amrerica had sex in 1982

    and that therefore

    WE ARE ALL WHORES!

  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • qixlqatl
  • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • crassus

    What I meant was that it’s not like it hurts us for November if he stays in, because we will beat the Democrats handily.

  • crassus

    What I meant was that it’s not like it hurts us for November if he stays in, because we will beat the Democrats handily.