GOP must change

Nobody here in Kershaw County or anywhere else in the country would rationally assert that President Obama's victory last month transformed the United States into a one-party country. After all, Obama won by a skinny percentage (though by a wider margin in the antiquated Electoral College), and the U.S. House of Representatives is still controlled by the GOP, as are a majority of governorships. However, the protocols of presidential ...

Hillary Clinton

There's an old saying that a cat has nine lives, but in politics, there's probably nobody who has more lives than Hillary Rodham Clinton. It's a measure of her resilience that as she completes four years as secretary of state in the Obama administration and prepares to step down from that post, her popularity is high, even among many who considered her almost the devil incarnate for a long ...

Noted and passed - Dec. 3, 2012

• There's a legitimate reason many Republican lawmakers in Washington oppose the potential nomination of Susan Rice as secretary of state. There are too many unanswered questions about her statements following the attack on the U. S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Many in the GOP say they'd be more comfortable with Sen. John Kerry, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 2004. Kerry has long years of experience and significant ...

Two-way street

We've been whacking national Republicans pretty hard lately. They lost the presidential election by appearing to be completely out of touch with the majority of voters. They have been the image of obstinacy, acting as if they are still operating in a cloakroom of darkness. Even Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has said the party is running out of angry old white men and had better change its ways.

College sports

There's a lot not to like about college athletics these days. In many ways, it has become a giant money grab, with schools giving up longtime allegiances and rivalries to jump from conference to conference, wherever the dollar signs are highest. Academic and recruiting scandals such as the recent one at the University of North Carolina are common. Coaches are paid millions of dollars while schools raise ticket prices ...

Noted and Passed -- Nov. 26, 2012

• One of the frankest explanations we've heard from Republicans on what the party needs to do to revitalize itself nationally came from Haley Barbour, the former governor of Mississippi and former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Said the folksy Barbour, "We've got to give our political organization a very serious proctology exam. We need to look everywhere."

Christie doing job

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the plain-spoken chief executive of the Garden State, found out following Hurricane Sandy just how deep partisan feelings can run. Christie, who praised President Obama for his response to New Jersey's being battered by the hurricane, came under severe criticism from many within his own party for being too complimentary of the president's actions; in fact, some laid the defeat of Mitt Romney at ...

Colonial Cup

The folks at the Carolina Cup Racing Association did their usual fine job in putting on last Saturday's Colonial Cup steeplechase program, and those who attended saw fine weather and a great racing program that featured two Camden connections in the winner's circle. The Colonial Cup, of course, has never been as well attended or as well known as its older cousin, the Carolina Cup, and the annual November ...

Noted and passed - Nov. 19, 2012

• Every year seems to find a new "over-used" expression -- something that is uttered by one person and then is heard everywhere you turn. For this year's we've-heard-it-too-much saying, we're nominating "kicking the can down the road," which Washington politicians are using to describe a quick fix to the nation's deficit problems rather than a solid, long-term solution. We hope that in the future they resort less to ...

Campaign money

Every once in awhile we take to jousting at windmills, posing situations that we know will never become reality but advocating for them, nevertheless. This year's elections, and the massive amount of money spent on them, spur us to do a bit of windmill tilting today. We all know, of course, that President Obama and Mitt Romney spent billions of dollars during their presidential campaign, but over the years, ...

Move forward

Tip O'Neill, the Massachusetts pol who was speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives for many years, once said that all politics is local. That maxim was never more evident than in last Tuesday's election for mayor in which political newcomer Tony Scully unseated incumbent Jeffrey Graham. It was concrete proof that if voters believe their elected officials aren't listening to them, they'll turn them out of office. Scully ...

Noted and passed - Nov. 12, 2012

• Former Camdenite and equine enthusiast Sally Brown is now living in Hilton Head with her husband, Austin, but her many friends here are happy that she has had a race horse named after her, just as Austin did a couple years ago. Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard and his wife Cathy named a filly for her earlier this year, and that horse is now in training. We ...

Conciliation

The best thing about Election Day is that all the drivel spooned out by the pundits and analysts and strategists and partisans goes right out the window. The electorate finally gets to have its say. And on Tuesday, the nation's voters said they'd rather have another term of the Obama administration than put Mitt Romney in the White House. Strangely enough, Americans say they're tired of bickering among the ...

The election

With election day now in the rear-view mirror, all Kershaw County residents from the staunchest, most bleeding-heart Democrat to the most rabid, reactionary Republican probably agree on one matter: that campaigns at every level last too long, are too expensive and focus too much on negative advertising. It won't be more than a few days before national pundits will begin speculating on which candidates are so-called front-runners for the ...

Noted and passed - Nov. 5, 2012

• With election day upon us, there's one final sad fact to report: lawyers for both parties are mobilizing, ready to start flinging lawsuits. In Ohio alone, thousands of attorneys are standing by; we're reminded a bit of those ads for prescription drugs in which a somber announcer tells viewers there's a pretty good chance they have a disease they might not even know about. Actually, having a legal ...

Primaries

The S.C. Republican Party has withdrawn from a federal lawsuit that would close the GOP's primary only to members of the party. The state organization didn't do that because it opposes the suit but because it doesn't want to spend the money. But in reality, it should oppose the suit as a matter of sound policy; trying to accomplish closed primaries in a state in which voters don't even ...

The U.S. Open

IRS reform

People in this country -- no doubt many right here in Kershaw County -- are angry with the Internal Revenue Service and its heavy-handed methods. Of course, the IRS has never been popular, and probably wouldn't be if the agency did everything by the book. But its recent targeting of conservative groups has spotlighted the venom with which overzealous bureaucrats can operate. Adding to it are recent revelations about ...