Sunday’s editorial offers the
editorial board’s thoughts on the presidential election:
Few things about this presidential
election have lent themselves to unambiguous, clear decisions, despite what the
campaigns and their diehard supporters might like us to believe. Neither of the
major candidates is a miraculous savior or unmitigated fiend. Both stand before
U.S.
voters with significant high and low points, and nobody has managed to leap to
the fore as the obviously better choice.
For proof, you need look no further
than the latest polling data. We give our fellow Americans credit for being
fairly smart and invested in the future of this nation, and as such, if the
decision on picking our next leader were an easy one, we wouldn’t be coming
down to the wire with two candidates that are still neck and neck.
Saturday’s editorial (provided by Cindi Scoppe at The State) discusses Nikki Haley’s selective memory when it comes to the stimulus decision and explains why she’s been on the wrong side all along.
Rep. Nikki Haley’s flip-flop on federal stimulus funding has been portrayed, by Republican and Democratic opponents alike, as an example of hypocrisy, her decision to flip cited as proof that she’s a follower instead of a leader, her attempts to explain that she didn’t really vote for the stimulus money before she voted against it as evidence that she has a problem with the truth.
But what’s more important than her change of position or even her disingenuous explanations of it (she calls her vote to pass the state budget that included federal stimulus funding a “technical” vote, for instance) is where she ended up when she finished flopping.
Friday’s editorial examines the need for systemic financial
reform through the lens of Beach First’s failure.
On a local level, the failure of
Beach First represents a tragedy for the community it intended to serve.
Since its founding in 1996, Beach
First sought to enhance the buying and building power of the Grand Strand by empowering
small and medium-size businesses to grow with the thriving economy. As we
consider the bank’s collapse, we ought not forget exactly how widespread the
optimism was in the explosive potential of our area.
My column on Friday takes an introductory look at the two
Republican gubernatorial candidates who aren’t as well known to Grand Strand
voters.
The Republican gubernatorial
primary offers Grand Strand voters four candidates, two of whom are already
familiar from previous statewide elections – Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and Attorney
General Henry McMaster – and two candidates most of us are just getting to
know: U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett from Oconee County, and Lexington state Rep.
Nikki Haley.
As they seek to expand their name
recognition to the coast, Barrett and Haley both recently stopped in to
introduce themselves at The Sun News. For people who share a party, the
stylistic differences between the two could hardly be more striking.
Sunday's editorial recognizes the restoration of local pines lost in April's wildfires through federal stimulus money.
Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve longleaf pine trees lost to the devastating April wildfire will be replaced with some of the money in a $1.74 million federal stimulus grant to the S.C. Forestry Commission.
Sunday's editorial adds practical criticisms to Saturday's conceptual critique of U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint's "Health Care Freedom Plan:"
As we explained Saturday, the most
serious weakness of Sen. Jim DeMint's "Health Care Freedom Plan" is its
lack of strong mechanisms to control out-of-control medical inflation.
But within the plan itself, specific elements also have deficiencies of
their own.
Sunday's editorial bemoans the governor's continued obstinance on what we believe to be a flawed opposition to taking $350 million in federal stimulus money.
The Sun News has long commended Gov.
Mark Sanford for his fealty to fiscal conservatism, while decrying his
preference for principles and theory over the practicalities of
real-life governance. This week, as he and the state legislature head
to federal court over the use of $350 million in federal stimulus money
to shore up next year's shrunken budget, we continue to shake our heads.
Ripped from the wires ... Cal Thomas adapts an aphorism made famous by the first Mayor Daley to the financial crisis:
By Cal Thomas
One of the more familiar sayings in politics is "don't get angry, get even.''
The anger caused by using millions in taxpayer bailout money to pay "retention'' bonuses to current and former AIG employees and to fund banks that mostly won't tell what they did with the money is an object lesson for all of us. It offers taxpayers an opportunity to "get even'' with those who have violated the U.S. Constitution, helped put our nation in peril and spent us into economic servitude to the Chinese.
Here's a little brain-teaser for those who have retreated indoors from the pine pollen this weekend: Did the U.S. House handle the AIG bonuses situation appropriately on Thursday?
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