For all the talk of flip-flopping, Beasley claims that he simply changed his mind, and decided moving the flag was the right thing to do. (I think people should have that perogative, as long as they don't do it often, or in a very bad direction.) He say he knew it would be unpopular; he can't have seen it as a political winner, surely? I give people more leeway on switching when they take unpopular stands.
(b) the fact that for some reason, that I can't place, he gives off a Clinton vibe to me. Too slick, not sincere, too blow-dryed and, well, political. It's not logical, but I can't deny the gut feel I get when I hear the guy.
I'm not one to dismiss a gut feeling. That's largely the reason I'm supporting Bill Cobey in North Carolina's guv primary. Although two people can meet the same politician and end up with radically different impressions of him.
From what I heard after moving down here in '97, his switch on the flag was very sudden and unexpected. He was foursquare for keeping it on the dome, and then, bang, he was for taking it down. If he did have a sincere change of heart, then, well, that's his right. I hope he wasn't politically naive enough to think that switching positions on the flag would actually get him any votes (except possibly from businessmen running scared from the NAACP "boycott"--and the NAACP "boycotted" us anyway despite Beasley's switch). I'll say this--from living down here for six and a half years, I can tell you that South Carolinians have a very, very low tolerance for people who don't keep their word.
Beasley's other vulnerability in '98 was education. Our public schools suck, there's no getting around it. Jim Hodges came along and chanted the mantra of "education lottery"--in fact, that's its official name, the South Carolina Education Lottery. (All the money, by the way, goes to colleges and universities, not K-12 education as promised.) He managed to find hundreds of creative ways to string together the words "education" and "lottery" and used them to hammer Beasley over and over on SC's schools. And, Hodges was backed by a whale of a lot of money from Fred Collins and other video poker machine company owners who were furious at Beasley for backing a ban on video gambling in SC. Hodges got elected, and Tenenbaum got elected as our chief publik skrool educator. In 2002, she was only one of two Democrats to win out of nine statewide offices, and the only one who won re-election.
This race is going to be really interesting whoever the Republican candidate is. The schools in SC have not really improved very much in the past six years, so you wouldn't think Tenenbaum has much to run on. But she has a trump card--she can turn to the camera and pout, "the General Assembly hasn't given me enough money, elect me and I'll get us some from Washington!" And, indeed, the legislature has had to cut school funding because of budget shortfalls.
Beasley may have high positives, but he does have high negatives still. We Southerners are not known for letting go of grudges easily. :)
}:-)4