The Opinion Blog

Congratulations; Now Get to Work

So much for the campaign. Now it’s time to actually get some work done, as Thursday’s editorial says:

The ballots are in, the votes have been counted (and in Carolina Forest they’re being recounted), the victory and concession speeches have been given, and residents and politicians alike are breathing sighs of relief as we return to our normal lives after yet another divisive political season. But if you’re one of those elected, now comes the hard part.

Without Great Choice for President, It's Obama

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.

Why We Recommend

Why do we even bother to share our thoughts on the upcoming election? Sunday’s editorial attempts to explain:

Over the coming week, The Sun News editorial board will be sharing our analyses, and our recommendations, of the candidates running for local, state and federal offices in the Nov. 6 election.

We do not call these pieces “endorsements;” nor do we think of them as such. An endorsement, in our view, is an exhortation that you vote for a particular candidate, and that’s not what we’re doing.

We simply want you to have as much information about these races as possible as you go to the polls. In these pieces, we will describe our impressions and critiques of these candidates in a way that the journalists who write in our news pages will not. (Rest assured, as always, that the two functions of newsgathering and opinion writing are separate at The Sun News.)

The Most Important Editorial in Years

Thursday’s editorial suggests we all take a deep breath and tone down the fever-pitched rhetoric that’s been flying ahead of November’s election.

How about a quick game? We looked back in our archives and the archives of other newspapers. The quotes by voters below were printed before the presidential elections of 1876, 1896, 1916, 1932, 1980, 1996, 2000 and 2008. Can you match them to the year they came from? (Answers at the bottom of the editorial)

1. “This is the most important election of the last 50 years or 50 years to come.”

2. “This is the most important election in at least half a century.”

College Is a Good Goal



Tuesday’s second editorial:

In 2010, as he was running to be re-elected to his post as chairman of the Horry County school board, Will Garland talked to the editorial board about his vision for a local education system that took every student from kindergarten all the way to college graduation. There should be a seamless system, he said, that worked from K-16, not just K-12. It wasn’t perhaps an original thought, but it was a good one, and it still is. We’ve heard the same aspiration multiple times from others in the community over recent years, from college leaders, municipal officials and others in leadership at our schools.

If You Care Who Our Next President Is, Vote Today



Saturday’s editorial comes courtesy of Cindi Scoppe at The (Columbia) State:

Upwards of half the people who cast ballots in the New Hampshire primary were independents. They mainly supported Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, which serves as a reminder that “independent” doesn’t always mean “political center,” but that’s beside the point. The point is this: Independents – or even Democrats, if they’re acting in good faith – don’t need to feel bad about voting in a Republican primary.

To the contrary, when there’s only one primary being held, they ought to feel bad if they don’t. Particularly here in South Carolina.

Plenty of Work for Both Sides



Yes, there’s still a party besides the Republicans on the coast, as Friday’s editorial points out:

Don’t worry, Democrats, we haven’t forgotten that you exist.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for our Grand Strand Republicans, what with first the presidential debate and all the hoopla surrounding it and now the primary coming up Saturday. But for many residents, it’s all been little more than a sideshow. If the 2008 and 2010 elections can be used as a barometer, at least a third of Horry County’s voters pull the lever for Democrats. In Georgetown County, the number is closer to half.

Inform Yourself Before Voting



Sunday’s editorial:

Inside today’s paper, readers will find a guide to the candidates in this Saturday’s Republican presidential primary. The newspaper’s hope each election in putting these sorts of guides together is that voters will spend some time learning more about the candidates before trooping off to the ballot box to cast their vote.

As we continue this campaign season and move closer to choosing the next leader of our 312 million countrymen, it is critically important to know as much as possible about the men and women who ask for your support. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American adult spends 2.7 hours every single day watching TV. We’d wager that many voters don’t spend that much time over an entire campaign to determine who they’re going to vote for. There’s still time to change that.

GOP Needs to Pay Counties Fully for Presidential Primary



Saturday’s editorial, provided by Cindi Scoppe at The State:

I’ve never liked the idea of taxpayers picking up the tab for a partisan beauty contest that won’t actually nominate anyone and whose timing and cost the state has no control over. Unlike state and local primaries, the purpose of South Carolina’s presidential primaries is to give direction to delegates to the parties’ national conventions – direction that those delegates are free to ignore.

Obama Could Lose, But Who Could Win?



Saturday’s editorial, courtesy The Chicago Tribune:

President Obama says he’s the “underdog” in 2012, and now he’s got the numbers to prove it. Only 42 percent of Americans are happy with the job he’s doing, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll; 37 percent expect he’ll be re-elected, and 46 percent say they “definitely will not” vote for him. Yet the Republicans are still casting about for a candidate who can beat him.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie crossed himself off the list on Tuesday, declaring that it’s “not my time.” It’s not clear whether he thinks it’s too soon to leave the office he won in 2009 or too late to mount an effective campaign for 2012, or both, but he’s probably right.