The Opinion Blog

Moot Mea Culpa

Fascinating news broke about the governor's race today that will obviously be overshadowed by the tawdry tale still unraveling. For a number of reasons, I expressed strong skepticism last week about the last showing Haley well ahead of her peers, but said I'd believe it if I saw a second poll.

Well, file this under "Watch what you wish for": 

It's hard to say at this point what the fallout of an alleged extramarital affair will be for Nikki Haley, but she'll have to see an incredible drop in her support not to get one of the two runoff spots when South Carolina voters go to the polls two weeks from today. A PPP survey conducted Saturday and Sunday, before the news broke, found Haley with a 20 point lead on the GOP field. She was at 39% with Henry McMaster at 18%, Gresham Barrett at 16%, and Andre Bauer at 13% closely matched for that second place spot.

Barracuda bites in SC governor's race

Back in March, when we talked about how the fact that each Republican candidate for governor has been endorsed by a different former 2008 GOP presidential hopeful, we noted that none of those endorsements mattered as much as Sarah Palin's or Jim DeMint's would.

As of this afternoon, Palin has now weighed in, announcing that she'll endorse state Rep. Nikki Haley tomorrow. By most measures, Haley had been significantly lagging in the race for the almost-inevitable runoff (consider her distant third place finish in a recent straw poll of state GOP officials or her even-more distant fourth place in fundraising) - will the Palin endorsement be enough to lift Haley back into contention?

Palin vs the media?

Does the national media really hate Sarah Palin? Or is their relationship a little more complicated?

Racial code weakens the GOP's message

Ripped from the wires ... Froma Harrop explains how the chasm between conservative ideology and conservative practice alienates minorities from the GOP:

By FROMA HARROP

In his essay "Why the GOP Can't Win With Minorities,'' conservative scholar Shelby Steele almost nails the half-question in the title. An African-American, Steele contrasts the "moral activism'' of liberals with conservative calls for personal discipline.

Palin isn't controversial, just irrelevant

Ripped from the wires ... Peter Beinart breaks down Sarah Palin's meteoric descent from culture war phenom to GOP embarrassment:

By Peter Beinart

Why has America turned on Sarah Palin? Obviously, her wobbly television interviews haven't helped. Nor have the drip, drip of scandals from Alaska, which have tarnished her reformist image. But Palin's problems run deeper, and they say something fundamental about the political age being born. Palin's brand is culture war, and in America today culture war no longer sells. The struggle that began in the 1960s -- which put questions of racial, sexual and religious identity at the forefront of American politics -- may be ending. Palin is the end of the line.

Palin's dividing-America habit drove me away

Ripped from the wires ... Self-described centrist Froma Harrop notes she was trending toward John McCain until he chose Sarah Palin as his running mate:

By FROMA HARROP

John McCain's top adviser complains that the media apply a double standard when they cover his candidate. "They think they're on the level with McCain, that he's not the old McCain,'' Mark Salter tells The Atlantic, "but he is the old McCain. He just doesn't know what happened to the old press corps.''

Let me explain.

If Palin were male, she'd be deemed incompetent

Ripped from the wires ... Carl Hiaasen speculates on how voters would treat Sarah Palin if she were a male:

By Carl Hiaasen

The vice-presidential debate is set for next Thursday, and millions of voters will be watching to see if moderator Gwen Ifill of PBS behaves herself.

Most journalists are still getting accustomed to the Sarah Rules, as established and enforced by John McCain's campaign team. The most important is Sarah Rule No. 1: Don't treat Gov. Palin like a male candidate, or you'll be accused of character assassination.

Don't let Sarah deter you from reading

Ripped from the wires ... Leonard Pitts decries Sarah Palin's propensity to censor and ban books she doesn't like:

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Of course, we all have questions for Sarah Palin:

Does she actually think living across the Bering Strait from Russia constitutes foreign policy expertise? Does she really take the parable of Adam and Eve as literal truth? How, exactly, does one field dress a moose? And why would one want to?

My first question, though, would not be one of those. I'd simply ask which books she wants to ban -- and why.