Sarah Palin coming to SC to back Nikki Haley

OK, just in case you didn’t have enough reasons to worry about Nikki Haley — the Sanford endorsement, all that Sanford cabal money buying ads in her behalf, and so forth, here’s one more for ya, courtesy of our ol’ buddy Peter Hamby:

(CNN) – Sarah Palin will be in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday to endorse state Rep. Nikki Haley for governor.

This will mark the former Alaska governor’s first political visit to the early primary state. Jenny Sanford, ex-wife of current Republican Gov. Mark Sanford, will also campaign with Haley on Friday…

“It is a tremendous honor to receive Governor Palin’s endorsement,” Haley said Thursday in a statement. “Sarah Palin has energized the conservative movement like few others in our generation.”Palin’s endorsement of Haley puts her at odds with her running mate in the 2008 presidential election, Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona.

McCain has backed McMaster in the primary. McMaster chaired McCain’s South Carolina campaign in 2008.

Man-oh-man … like we didn’t have enough Crazy in South Carolina, we need to start importing it…

Hey, all that pandering to the Tea Party crowd Nikki’s been doing has paid off, huh?

Folks, I have a feeling that the GOP contest for the gubernatorial nomination just became an ideological knife fight. This is NOT going to be pretty.

On the bright side, this should be a settler for those ugly nativists who tried to trash Nikki in her first election — from whom I defended her, back in the days before she started going after the nativist vote (the only conclusion I can draw from her embrace of the TPs). Now they’ll have to face that she MUST be a “real American” — or else the self-appointed final arbiter of such things wouldn’t be coming to endorse her.

22 thoughts on “Sarah Palin coming to SC to back Nikki Haley

  1. Pat

    Soooo, do I just go vote in the Democratic primary or the Republican one? If I vote in the Republican, I will be mostly voting against certain people.

  2. Lynn

    Sigh. Poor South Carolina. Please, let there be a degree of stupid that my beloved state won’t fall for.

  3. Karen McLeod

    Pat, at least at the govenor’s level, I can’t see anyone on the republican slate that I’d be willing to vote ‘for’ even as the least of the worst. They’ve all marched off the edge.

  4. Doug Ross

    I was going to vote for Haley but not now. Palin may help Haley win but we don’t need to dumb down our political system any further.

    But wouldn’t it be sweet if McCain endorsed Haley as well?

    Looks like I’ll be voting for Bauer or (more likely) nobody.

  5. Elizabeth

    I was born here, and lived here all my life. When we were kids, I used to argue (friendly) with my cousins from other states about SC being the best state. I am so ashamed, now. There are plently of good politicans here. I truly respect a number of them. My friends are here. My family is here. But, I am considering moving away. Being a person who worked with people, and cares about those who have difficulties in life, I can not stand the way we are treating those less fortunate, those who need help, those who are down on their luck, those who just need some care. The way we continue to let a governor stay in office after he has violated our laws and our confidence, is unbelievable. Joe Wilson yelling at our President. These things hurt me. Now, Sarah Palin. Who really thinks she has any sense? I do not get it.

  6. Doug Ross

    If you don’t take the two minutes to watch the video (which is in response to a question from a journalist asking if the governor’s confrontational manner will help get his agenda through, here’s the key quotes:

    “But the fact of the matter, this is who I am. And this is who the people elected. You guys want to continue to talk about this process stuff.. about “MY TONE”, “MY COMBATIVENESS”… like it or not, you guys are stuck with me for four years”.

  7. Brad

    Good thinkin’, Doug. I learned long ago that other people don’t love links as much as I do, and so if I want them to know something, I have to go ahead and tell them.

    And the key, of course, is not to re-elect a guy like this once we see what he’s like.

  8. bud

    Brad, your last comment is interesting. Are you suggesting that Sanford was a reasonable sort of guy when you endorsed him in 2002 but only when re-election time rolled around was it evident that he was what he was. Sanford was pretty kooky long before he was governor.

    On the other hand, I didn’t really get George W. Bush in 2000. I was pretty much indifferent between him and Gore that year so I voted for Nader basically because of one issue – the death penalty. Worst damn vote I ever made.

    So I can’t really fault anyone who fails to see what someone is all about the first time they are elected to something.

    Of course by 2004 it was clear to me that W was a complete and total disaster in every way possible. I guess you had that same revelation about Sanford in 2006.

    As a side note I haven’t found a single 2000 Nader voter that did anything but vote for John Kerry in 2004. How could Kerry not win that election?

  9. Kelly

    Bad day for Haley and bad day for Palin and bad day for Jenny. The Haley/Jenny event was so poorly attended they had to move it from the performance hall into the lobby.

    The State House event, hastily planned and poorly executed during a Friday rush hour, had to be a bitter disappointment. It likely means the end for Palin. She put all her chips on a longshot, and when she comes back in 18 months with the other 2012 White House contenders, the sitting Republican governor (most likely Andre) will have no reason to show her any love, which is not good for her chances in one of the country’s earliest primaries.

    The event in Charleston shows that Jenny’s alure, assuming she ever had any, is dimming.

    For Haley, a bad day. The tea party simply has not caught on. Haley cannot turn the numbers out nor can she draw the bucks in (with the exception of Mark Sanford’s Club for Growth disreputably non-transparent $400k contribution).

    Haley in recent days has as throughly alienated the Senate as she had earlier broken all ties wit the House and its leadership. She is a leper in terms of influence within the Legislature.

    She walked away from the $110,000 Lexington Medical Foundation salary she reported on her statement of economic interest.

    Question: What did she produce for $110k — which is about the average income for almost three SC families? After all, Haley was:

    1) a full-time legislator

    2) running for governor full-time

    3) a full-time mother and wife

    4) and, as she happily reminds us at every debate, a full-time businesswoman.

    Brad, it is sad that the MSM is so poorly resourced that not one reporter has had the ability to walk over to Lexington and ask for her work products. Or, even ask Haley to show what she produced in return for $110k.

    Worse, no one has troubled her conscience by inquiring shouldn’t we all be more concerned by politicals feasting at the public teat than recording every dismal housekeeping vote?

    Unless they are complete idiots, the people at Lexington Medical Foundation apparently believed they were getting something of value in return for giving a Lexington County House member $110k.

    I think finding out what that was will tell us a lot about Haley.

    But on Saturday morning, May 15, 24 days out from the primary, Haley is visably collapsing. Mark Sanford’s cash will make an effort to prop her up, but you can stick a fork in her. She’s done.

  10. Pat

    Kelly, I wish your post was on the front page of the MSM. It gives me hope that common sense and sanity are returning.

  11. Kathryn Fenner

    “As a side note I haven’t found a single 2000 Nader voter that did anything but vote for John Kerry in 2004. How could Kerry not win that election?”

    Good question, bud. Do you mean “how could [how ever many] Americans be so stupid?” which was The Guardian headline the day after the election, or do you mean “where did all the Bush voters come from?”
    Did more people vote? Kerry was Swift-boated (seriously unfairly by guys who never even served), while nothing much really stuck to Al Gore.

  12. Michael P.

    Kelly, there are plenty of people at Lexington Medical Center (and every other hospital around the Midlands) who are in the $80K – $120K salary range who aren’t producing anything of any substance. They’re there because the hospital is required to hire people to be in certain positions to comply with different health service provider regulations.

  13. Doug Ross

    I wonder which rival campaign “Kelly” works for. The post reads like a standard smear from a political operative. Why do the anonymous attacks on candidates who aren’t your favorites sneak through the vetting process?

  14. Libb

    Kelly, your level of “reporting” just set a standard I would like to see Brad et al seek to meet.

    Sidenote-understand from one in attendance that it was painfully obvious from Ms Palin’s words that she knew nothing about Ms Haley. Sad…

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