South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C.—We've just been informed that John Edwards did not actually win the South Carolina Democratic Primary! Some other people (who are not at the Edwards not-victory party) may have heard about this by now from Wolf Blitzer. From the front of Jillian's restaurant, a plaintive wail went up: "Joe, please come to the host, your dining table is ready." This is a very sad moment here, for those who are not actually at the Edwards party but instead are here to celebrate birthdays or, you know, to just eat. Wait—we're just hearing that John Edwards will not place second either. Worse, John Edwards is not here—he is with his family, we hear, but campaign adviser (and internet visionary!) Joe Trippi is now with us in the dim press room. (Apparently he was not the Joe being seated for chicken wings.) Edwards himself will speak circa 9:30 p.m. EST.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Yes, can you hear me? Hello? It's just BEDLAM here at John Edwards VICTORY PARTY HEADQUARTERS 2008, as a number of people casually dine on what look like chicken wings in Jillian's. We are in this large watering hole not far from downtown—and from the parking lot you can hear Barack Obama's fans yelling, awaiting his concession speech. (Right? I can't quite see the numbers under Wolf Blitzer on the T.V.!) Oddly enough—Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up" is playing here inside Jillian's. That is the song that Barack Obama often plays after he has concluded a speech.  read more »

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C.—We were at a community center attached to a megachurch-ish place called the Brookland Baptist Church. No one seemed to know we were coming. Charlie Rangel ambled in, looking Ranglian. He took three questions. The first, from a Greenville news reporter, was basically, what are you doing here.

"I have no idea,” Rangel responded. “I'm campaigning for Hillary Cllnton and this is my first stop...I'm here to do what campaigning is all about."

The second question was about why people should vote for her versus Obama.  read more »

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.—Former President Bill Clinton, the only class-A champion worker of the media here in South Carolina, is up to something. And no one, particularly the press, is exactly sure what he's doing, or why he's doing it.

In Kingstree, around 6 p.m., Bill Clinton was taking questions and doing his Great Explainer thing for an almost entirely African-American audience in a municipal center. In the back of the room, the New York Times' Kit Seelye was typing away at her story that ran today. "Bill Clinton Accuses Obama Camp of Stirring Race Issue" was the headline, with contributions from two other reporters in other cities and scripts of new campaign ads provided by her editors. The story was largely about Clinton's unexpected (by the media, at least) remarks that took place a bit after 1 p.m. down in Charleston.  read more »

DILLON, S.C.—Democrats are right to worry about the fall-out from the increasingly bitter battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—at least if conversations with African-American voters at two Obama events yesterday are anything to go by.

One might not expect anyone attending an Obama rally to come easily to Clinton's defense. But it was striking that even audience members who were not committed Obama supporters expressed strong disapproval of the tone struck by the former First Lady and her husband recently.

Joseph Myers, a local man who watched Obama speak in a high school gymnasium in this struggling town in the north-east of the state, said he had been leaning toward John Edwards until he saw Monday's CNN debate, replete with its rancorous Clinton-Obama exchanges.  read more »

KINGSTREE, S.C.—In the Q&A session of a lovely talk by Bill Clinton (seriously!), an audience member took the microphone and said, "Black America is voting for Obama—a lot of blacks—because he's black." His concern was that then Obama would beat Clinton: "[Republicans] know they can't beat Hillary but they can beat Obama."  read more »

Here's a pretty remarkable transcript of Bill Clinton's question-and-answer session with reporters after his event in Charleston earlier.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- I'm going to be spending the rest of the week in my home state, South Carolina, writing about the upcoming Democratic primary for the Politicker.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into my mother's house, where I'm staying, was a flashing red light on the answering machine. I pushed the button, thinking my mom might have left an update on the status of the supply of cold cuts in the fridge, but instead, there was a drawling recorded voice:

Hello. FBI agent Gary Aldrich says that Hillary on Inauguration Day, 1993 was in an uncontrolled and unbridled fury, yelling and screaming profanities, because she was not allowed to have Vice President Al Gore’s office in the White House. Hillary treats people like they are invisible; can you trust her?

And this:

Hillary knew about and helped cover up Bill’s rape of Juanita Broaddrick. Hillary treats women like they are invisible; can you trust her?

It went on in this vein for a minute or so. (In one particularly ludicrous bit of slander, the robo-caller accused the Clintons of stealing or killing Kathleen Willey's cat, concluding with the following punchline: “Hillary thinks cats are expendable; can you trust her?”

It would have been funny if it weren't so sad.TPM Muckraker was on these calls (apparently the work of a unaffiliated Black Helicopter-type) yesterday, so they're not exactly news, but somehow this kind of mud seems dirtier when it's being flung in your (or your mom’s) direction.

Should be an interesting few days.

CHARLESTON, S.C.—"Half the time when she shows how tough she is, people say she's too tough," Bill Clinton said of his wife early this afternoon at a diner full of invited guests. He noted she deals with the "psychological double-bind women sometimes get caught in." He was speaking very calmly and quietly. "She has to live with the smears and the slime that people put on her every day."  read more »

LEXINGTON, S.C. -- Barack Obama, on his third of four campaign stops today in South Carolina, is looking laid-back but a bit beat here at the Lexington Municipal Complex. (It's 6:30 p.m.; 24 hours ago, he was preparing for the Myrtle Beach debates, and this morning he began clear across the state from there, working his way back south-east today. His final stop will be in (allegedly!) an hour with…Usher.

(Yes, Usher Raymond. And Kerry Washington, who is, umm, of acting fame.)

He went on nearly 90 minutes late; the crowd did not seem to mind waiting. But when he did get there, he had a difficult time finding his way into a groove; it sounds to me that there are some little added sections to his talk that stress the economy. (Polls say! Voters more worried about economy than war!)  read more »

In Florida, McCain is in first place with 29 percent of the vote, followed by Romney at 22 percent, then Huckabee and Giuliani tied for third place, 17-16. Clinton has a commanding lead over Obama, with 59 percent to Obama’s 21 percent. The data was gathered yesterday and today. [ARG]  read more »

The bloodletting between the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was not stanched by the end of last night’s debate in Myrtle Beach. It continued in the spin room.

Ann Lewis continued to talk about Obama’s comments about the trajectory changing force of Republican ideas to a Las Vegas editorial board.

“He said that they were the party of ideas,” she said. “Clearly in contradiction to the Democratic Party.”  read more »

The paradox that is Barack Obama came into sharp, almost painful, focus tonight: He is, at once, one of the best television candidates in political history and one of the more underwhelming.

Obama’s political star was launched when he delivered a dazzling address on national television at his party’s convention in 2004. His oratory was mesmerizing, his message inspiring, and his appearance and manner made him an instantly likable figure to millions of Americans. That Obama—Big Speech Obama—is tailor-made for television.

But then there’s Debate Obama, a hesitant, stuttering, easily rattled and mostly unsmiling public performer who litters his platitudes and “uh’s” and misses countless opportunities to throw his opponents’ taunts back in their faces. Debate Obama unwittingly affirms Hillary Clinton’s suggestion that he lacks the seasoning to withstand the scrutiny of a fall campaign and leaves those who have only seen Big Speech Obama wondering, “Is this really the same guy?”
 read more »

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Wow. The exchanges at the Democratic debate here in Myrtle Beach tonight have been absolutely poisonous. There have actually been repeated gasps in the press filing center as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama basically insulted each other without pause for 15 minutes.

CNN promises a transcript, but in the meantime, here are some of the highlights, or low points, depending on your view.

It really started to spiral when Obama said that Clinton, and former president Bill Clinton had made a concerted effort to say things about him that were not " factually accurate," particularly in seeking to cast doubt on the consistency of his position against the war in Iraq, and said that the country was looking for someone who would consistently tell the truth.  read more »

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Things are about to get underway in the spin room... or, in tonight's case, spin lobby? Very grand accomodations in the lobby of the Palace. Just now volunteers are receiving their signs ("Clinton campaign") that identify who is a spokesbot for which candidate.

A source in the Clinton campaign confirms that Hillary Clinton will be spending most of the week before the South Carolina primary in states other than South Carolina.

She’s expected to spend Tuesday in California and Arizona, and New Mexico. Wednesday she will be in New Mexico and New Jersey and probably New York. And on Friday, she will return to South Carolina, a day before the primary here.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Hillary Clinton rounded out the Democratic candidates giving their Martin Luther King Jr. speeches today with an address that emphasized the need for “work” and “action” to continue the legacy of the civil rights movement. Clinton was speaking to a crowd that heavily favored Barack Obama, and at first her speech received lukewarm responses in the areas where she traditionally gets applause. (Her line about how work without faith is “just too hard” was met with silence.) But Clinton battled through, giving an impassioned appeal to achieve social justice by getting back to “the solutions business in America.”  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Cornel West, an Obama supporter, is really popular with the kids here.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Shortly after noon, Barack Obama spoke, delivering a truncated version of the new speech he's using. He had a slow warm-up, went on to invoke both Selma and Jena, and then launched into the winning "moral deficit" stumper he delivered yesterday in the church in Atlanta where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor.  read more »

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- This is Tom Johnson. Tom Johnson is bummed. The 20-year-old button-seller from Los Angeles was assigned to sell Hillary buttons here this morning as a big march with all the candidates was supposed to take place. The board he was wearing was still covered in unsold merchandise.

"I was thinking, a Hillary event--great," he said. "Then the parade passed and only Obama was there and the whole street was filled with Obama people and nobody wanted Hillary buttons. She didn't even march. She just showed up."

John McCain’s lead slips very slightly in this tracking poll, which has him at 29 percent and Mike Huckabee at 22 percent in South Carolina. [Reuters-C-SPAN-Zogby]

His lead slips slightly more in this poll, which shows McCain with 29 percent, and Huckabee with 26 percent in South Carolina. [SurveyUSA]  read more »

John McCain leads Huckabee 33-23 in South Carolina, with Mitt Romney in third place with 20 percent. Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton 44-38, and John Edwards trails at 9 percent. [ARG]

McCain leads Mike Huckabee 28-20 in South Carolina, with Romney at 18 percent and Fred Thompson at 17 percent. [Public Policy Polling]  read more »

Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama, but within the margin of error in Nevada. Mitt Romney leads John McCain among Republicans. [ARG]

McCain leads Mike Huckbee 29-23 in South Carolina. [C-SPAN/Reuters/Zogby]  read more »

Ben looks at Hillary Clinton's gender-based campaign.

Hillary Clinton notes that the South Carolina state legislator who endorsed her shortly after she hired his consulting company has been a supporter of hers since 1992.

Eliot Spitzer said he'll do everything he can to get federal approval to build casinos in the Catskills.

The Times editorial board wants Spitzer to tackle global warming.

Spitzer is using leftover money from his predecessor to pay for special projects in Democratic state Senate districts, according to Jacob Gershman.

In a profile, Ray Hernandez notes that freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand of upstate has a hectic schedule which already includes a campaign fund-raiser.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker told voters in his city he can turn public schools around faster than Mike Bloomberg did in NYC. Construction on the Atlantic Yards Project may start today.

A prosecutor in the Brooklyn District Attorney's office was suspended after she gave confidential information to her fiance, a private defense attorney.

Former Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. may be making $3 million a year in his new job with Merrill Lynch. (Second-to-last item.)

XM and Sirius agreed to merge.

And Former Senator Phil Gramm makes the case for John McCain [subscription].

-- Azi Paybarah

Eliot Spitzer's plan may be working, with some legislators feeling a "rare backlash" because they voted for Tom DiNapoli for comptroller.

While visiting a family just outside Albany, Spitzer did not attack the local Assembly member.

Mike Bloomberg wants the federal government to steer $150 million a year to NYC for health costs related to the September 11th attacks.

The school bus fiasco was debated at the City Council.

The MTA can't afford the No. 7 expansion.

Ceasar Borja responded to a NYT story casting doubt on his late father's work at Ground Zero, asking, "Why are they attacking my father's honor?"

Mario Cuomo said winning the White House will not be based on ideas and solving problems, but rather, "money and charisma and mistakes and bull---t."

Hillary Clinton snagged a key African-American supporter in South Carolina.

Will Hillary be the Ed Muskie of 2008?

Giuiliani hunted for the agriculture vote, and promised to get a farm adviser.

To prevent health care cuts, unions won't use the same tactics against Eliot Spitzer that they used against his predecessor.

The state comptroller received a letter with white powder and "a death threat."

The most aggressive online presidential campaigner is John Edwards [subscription].

-- Azi Paybarah

Observer alum and South Carolina native Andrew Rice emails with an addendum to my post about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the black vote, pointing out that the analysis -- in particular an observation from David Bositis about the lily-white electorate in Iowa and New Hampshire -- overlooks the importance of his home state.

From the email:

There is one major primary among the "first four" in which there are a huge number of black voters--South Carolina.

According to 2005 census numbers African Americans make up almost 30 percent of SC's population--way, way above the national average of 13 percent. Statistics from the 2004 primary show that African Americans made up 38 percent of registered Dems.  read more »

But if you look at who actually voted in the primary, blacks turned out in far greater numbers than whites--106,917 to 77,371.

Via the miracle of fiber optics, the Politicker is coming to you today from the relatively balmy state of South Carolina, the locale of this politicker's birth. The big news here today is the death of another native son, James Brown--the story takes up the entire front page of the local newspaper, The State. However, as most Politicker readers no doubt know, the Palmetto State's main distinction when it comes to national politics is that it holds the first presidential primary in the south--right after New Hampshire and right before Super Tuesday. The South Carolina primary looms particularly large in Republican politics, because for the past decade or so it has acted as an insurgency firewall. It was here that George Bush, Sr. and Bob Dole dispatched Pat Buchanan's 1990s primary challenges, and it was also here, of course, that Dubya stopped John McCain's momentum in 2000.

Consequently, the state has been seeing a lot of out-of-town politicians lately. Republican Senator Sam Brownback dropped by last week, as did former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, who is apparently--and this was news to me--thinking about running for the GOP nomination. But the most interesting talk down here concerns South Carolina's own governor, Mark Sanford. Sanford, as some of you may remember, was part of the House Republican Class of 1994. A parsimonious fellow, he slept on a cot in his office for the six years he spent in Washington; as governor, he's taken a strictly conservative line on fiscal policy, which has often put him in conflict with the Republican-controlled state legislature. His most memorable moment as governor probably occurred in 2004, when he carried a pair of piglets onto the floor of the legislature to protest the body's fondness for pork projects. It was the most colorful use of animal symbolism in South Carolina politics since the 1970s, when a local barbeque magnate and ardent segregationist campaigned for the governor by barnstorming the state on a white horse.

Anyway, last week, one of Sanford's former aides wrote a column in the Washington Times, saying that Sanford should run for president, calling him a "candidate that could truly excite the base"--meaning southern conservatives--now that George Allen's career has imploded. Sanford has not commented on his former aide's suggestion, but as The State's Sunday political column noted, "Sanford's silence on whom he plans to support in the GOP presidential primary speaks volumes." It seems like an absurdly long shot--the ever-increasing nationalization of nomination process has made the "favorite son" candidacy an anachronism, and Sanford isn't even all that popular (he only took 55 percent of the vote in his reelection campaign, against a sacrificial Democratic victim)--but, were he to run, he might shake up the strategies of Brownback and Mitt Romney and the rest of those Republicans seeking to run to John McCain's right, who will likely be looking to make a stand in South Carolina.

-- Andrew Rice

Peter King and Hillary Clinton kick off a campaign to promote voluntary service on September 11th at the Scholastic Offices in Soho.

Nick Spano and Assemblyman Adam Bradley hold a press conference in Rye Brook on health care reform legislation currently before George Pataki.

Rudy Giuliani attends a GOP fundraiser in South Carolina.

—Nicole Brydson

Here's a blast from the past: a 1997 ad featuring George Pataki introducing the new Metrocard Gold. (Does anybody even remember the blue cards?)

With dramatic music and the happiest people The Politicker has ever seen emerging from an elevated train station, Pataki closes the ad with, "Metrocard Gold, the beginning of a whole new transit system."

The series of announcements provoked controversy at the time, some of you may recall, when Democrats accused Pataki of using his office for political and personal gain.

Sounds familiar, somehow...

Also, The Hotline on Call reports that Pataki will be seeking to reach a more national audience in the days ahead, with scheduled stops in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina and what "aides bill as a major speech on energy in DC."

—Nicole Brydson

LAURIE: So we're at the White Eagle (scree) Conference Center, and I'm feeling less than psyched about the room that we've chosen to host our wedding reception. The ceilings are perilously low, the décor hurts my internal organs, and it doesn't seem nearly big enough to hold as many guests as we expect will attend. There's extra outdoor seating for 40 people, but it might rain. It might be really windy. It might be repulsively hot and humid. Or, even though we're getting married just before July 4th weekend, it might actually be chilly. (Seriously. I have distinct memories of snow flurrying at a late August Allman Brothers concert at the New York State Fairgrounds. And it snowed one week before my college graduation, on Memorial Day weekend.)

A chef at the space named Will tells me that the Chandelier Room seats 300 and isn't booked for that date. Because of my commitment to the idea of a casual wedding reception, I have been loath to even consider the Chandelier Room, which Will has described as "formal." Our only other option, apart from scrapping the whole thing and forfeiting the small deposit we've already made, is to rent a large tent and have it pitched somewhere on the property, which the chef assures me will "significantly increase your costs." So we go and check out the Chandelier Room.  read more »

This whole White Eagle facility was, at one time, owned by the American Management Association. I guess they took the "American" part pretty seriously, because, as Josh points out, there are figurines and drawings and wooden silhouettes of eagles all over the damn place. And part of the facility is something called the Americana Village, where, Will shares helpfully, some people choose to have their ceremony. We stop by on the way to the Chandelier Room, to see if the Americana Village will suit our needs. I am skeptical before we get there, and screaming inside as soon as we arrive. Although there is a perfectly lovely gazebo in the center of it all, it is surrounded by a series of wooden buildings that can only be described as "in complete and utter disrepair." Like, slumping on their foundations, broken windows, totally trashed interiors, major flaking paint. What part of "Americana" is this supposed to glorify - a trashed South Carolina plantation after the Civil War? It looks like the Little House on the Prairie set, overtaken by a gang of violent meth-addicted chefs.

The strangeness begins with the first sentence—“The bearded ladies were dancing in the m  read more »

The strangeness begins with the first sentence—“The bearded ladies were dancing in the mud”—  read more »

A great blessing in life is that most people can get used to anything.  read more »

Strom: The Complicated  read more »

Strom: The Complicated  read more »

Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond, by Jack Bass and Marilyn W.  read more »

Strom: The Complicated Personal and Political Life of Strom Thurmond, by Jack Bass and Marilyn W.  read more »

On the cold, wet second day of spring this year, I sought refuge from the lashing sleet with a group  read more »

In 2001, Rudy Giuliani was Time magazine's Person of the Year.  read more »

So apparently, they read the New York Observer in South Carolina.

The Note reported this morning that S.C. State Rep. Tracy Edge pronounced himself "shocked and disappointed to learn that Mayor Giuliani charged our state hospital association $100,000 to speak at an event to benefit tsunami victims."

ABC News just put up some more detail in an interview with Edge, a Republican who was referring to our story this week.

The Observer's Joseph Tuzzo stopped by Rudy's press conference this afternoon, and Rudy was asked about Edge's call.

GIULIANI: I asked [the South Carolina Hospital Association] how much should be donated. I doubled that. And if they feel more should be donated, I'd be happy to do it. I will talk to them and find out, but the discussion should be with the Hospital Association. They understand the economics of their event, and we will do anything that they want, like we did in the past....

Q: Do you think on your own, because of all that's been brought to your attention that you do want to return the $80,000?  read more »

GIULIANI: Not until I talk to them. I'd like to see what they feel is the right thing to do because they know the economics of their event and we'll make sure we do what they feel is the right thing to do.

In today's Observer, we look into Rudy's tycoonhood, which we maintain is real. Indeed, we suspect that it will be harder to leave Giuliani Partners for politics than many people assume. We had somehow missed, for instance, that late last year he acquired a midsize investment bank.

But the news in this piece is probably the most obvious instance of the strain between Rudy, Inc. and Rudy 2008, which occurred on February 8 in South Carolina:

"Mr. Giuliani had initially been booked by the South Carolina Hospital Association through the Washington Speakers Bureau to speak for his usual $100,000 fee. But then a massive tsunami devastated South Asia and "we just didn't feel that a big old party was the right thing," said Patti Smoake, the hospital association's spokeswoman.

"Instead, the South Carolinians held a fund-raiser called 'From South Carolina to South Asia.'

"Mr. Giuliani agreed to speak at the new event. He even wrote a $20,000 check to the Red Cross, the event's beneficiary, according to figures cited by a South Carolina hospital official and obtained by The Observer. He batted away the inevitable political speculation that accompanied his visit to the crucial Republican primary state, telling a local reporter he was visiting 'because I enjoy coming to South Carolina and because this is a worthy cause.'

"Mr. Giuliani didn't mention it at the time, but he also walked away from the tsunami benefit with $80,000 at a time when celebrities from Bill Clinton and the first President Bush to George Clooney were donating time to the relief effort. There was nothing illegal, or even particularly unusual, about his taking a fee from a charity event-- his fee was, technically, underwritten by corporate sponsors. But taking the money was not the move of a man whose political future depends on the good will of the voters of South Carolina, the decisive state in the 2000 Republican primary widely viewed as the immovable object between a socially liberal Republican like Mr. Giuliani and the nomination.

"'It is not the gesture of someone who's serious about running for the Republican Presidential nomination or someone who is getting sound political advice about South Carolina,' said Nelson Warfield, a Republican political consultant who was press secretary to Bob Dole's bid for the Presidency. 'If you want to be President, you have to make some sacrifices, and one sacrifice would be giving it up for free to the good people of South Carolina and the tsunami victims.'

"The New York Dems' Wolfson called it 'Giuliani relief' rather than 'tsunami relief.'  read more »

"Giuliani aides said in his defense that he'd donated twice what the sponsors suggested."

When it was announced last month that the Algonquin Hotel was once more changing hands-the third tim  read more »

Last week, Andrew Cuomo, who is white, went to South Carolina togive a paid speech at a university.  read more »

I turned on the TV the other evening and was startled to see Al Gore with his face thickly covered b  read more »

As they watched Gov. George W.  read more »

The only spectacle more offensive than the raising of the Confederate battle flag over public buildi  read more »

Stephen Sondheim sure is selfish when it comes to taking a stand in municipal politics.  read more »