The Opinion Blog

Romney sings "America the Beautiful"

I think he started a bit too high, but all in all, not a bad job. I don't think I could have done better.

 

And the spin begins

Update, 12:30 p.m.: Ted Vick just filed his campaign report. The Chesterfield rep. has taken the clear lead in the Democratic race so far, if money is any guide. Vick pulled in $174,000 in contributions last quarter, and then added about $55,000 of his own money in contributions and loans.

Original post: The press release last week sounded impressive: "Jay Jordan’s 4^th Quarter report will show he raised $206,000 from 244 donors in just 2 months with over 96% of those donors being from inside the new 7^thCongressional District."

History Paved Over?



Tuesday’s editorial addresses a recent change governing state rules on coastal development:

State regulators’ recent decision to no longer require coastal developers to conduct archaeological surveys before building is a short-sighted and unfortunate choice.

South Carolina has archaeological sites that stretch back up to 12,000 years, said Elizabeth Johnson, deputy State Historic Preservation Officer. The coast in particular, as the first place Europeans settled, is rich in sites of historic significance. Many have been found, identified and studied, but nobody really knows how many others are out there to be discovered.

TUESDAY OPEN FORUM

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Two Parties?

An interesting historical artifact for you today. This editorial is from The Sun News, Feb. 8, 1962. Spotted it while doing some other research in our archives and thought it interesting enough to copy here. That's the original headline up there, by the way.

"Since an effort is being made to organize Republicans in Horry County, we wonder if they'll offer candidates in the next general election.
"We have no idea how many people in the county are Republican Party members, but there must be some around. If the strength is sufficient, we suspect that some democrats nominated for office in the primaries might have opposition.
"However, we doubt if Horry is on the verge of blooming into a two-party county. But that's not to say it'll never happen."

Just Afraid Enough



(Sunny's taking a week off from writing a piece for the blog, so instead I offer a good rerun. This column of hers was first published March 15, 2010.)

 

By Sunny Fry

 

There was a dog limping down the side of my road Friday, so skinny I could see her skeleton from my car, and limping so badly she nearly stumbled in front of another vehicle.  I couldn’t stop because of traffic, but went home and grabbed Number 2 Son and a can of dog food.  When we pulled up and whistled to her, she turned to look and gave a cautious, gentle wag of her tail. 

 

 The food was a big hit, and the smell from the empty can lured her into the back seat, though her poor paw was so sore she whined, tucked it under her, and just lay down on some rocks before she climbed in.  Then a bath and another can of food and bowl of dry kibble.  She found a safe-feeling cubbyhole at the foot of our stairs and slept the rest of Friday, rising only once for a nature call, and then spent Saturday, too, rising only to eat and process all that food and water.  This morning she got up, and miraculously the soreness which made me fear she’d been hit by a car, and made her walk like Gollum with her right front paw splayed wildly to the side and hips all disjointed and weird, was gone.

MONDAY OPEN FORUM

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Give Us Our Seats



A new congressional district means more seats to be filled on state boards and panels. We think it’s time to get that process moving along:

What do the South Carolina DOT Commission, Board of Chiropractic Examiners, Human Affairs Commission and Winthrop University board of trustees have in common?

Each of the panels – as well as dozens of others – must be revised to accommodate the state’s new 7th Congressional District. For the sake of fairness, many of our state’s oversight boards are composed of members appointed by congressional district, to include members that represent the entire state. When the 2010 census added a new district to the mix, each of these panels became in need of updating.

SUNDAY OPEN FORUM

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Who we are and who we look like



Saturday’s editorial, on the recent GOP primary, comes via Cindi Scoppe over at The (Columbia) State:

The nation looks to South Carolina every four years to see what we have to say about the presidential race. I look to the presidential race to see what it says about South Carolina, and this year’s picture wasn’t particularly flattering.

Last week’s primary had a lot less in common with four years ago, when Republicans nominated one of the most honorable people I’ve ever met and Democrats embraced a message of hope, than with 2000, when we essentially ended John McCain’s first presidential bid after a well-orchestrated smear campaign alleged that his adopted Bengali-born daughter was biologically his own illegitimate black child and that he had given secrets to his Vietnamese captors, and spread lies about his positions on hot-button issues.