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SC Hopes Its Dumb Pols Don't Hurt Economy, Too

Jokes are bad, but Sanford, Wilson messes could scare off more business

By Will McCahill, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 21, 2009 7:41 PM CDT

(Newser) – The fact that two of its more prominent politicians—Gov. Mark Sanford and Rep. Joe Wilson—are the butt of recent political jokes is no laughing matter in South Carolina, where memories of the fight over flying the Confederate flag are still scaring off business and tourism. The firestorm around Sanford has paralyzed state government, and citizens of all stripes worry that one of the worst economic situations in the US is going to get uglier.

“It’s almost like the backwater of a swamp,” one Democrat tells the Los Angeles Times. “Everything’s sitting there, nothing’s circulating and the only thing moving is the mosquitoes.” Adds a businessman: “If you’re in competition and they say they're not coming because of Sanford or the flag, that gets told. What concerns the business community more than anything else is the looks we don’t get and never find out about.”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. (AP Photo)

Rep. Joe Wilson, R-SC. (AP Photo)

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To get on the stage because your congressman shouted at the president, or your governor is running around with an Argentine mistress, isn't what you want your state to be about. - David Woodard, Clemson University

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 9 comments

easterner

Oct 22, 2009 12:47 PM CDT

Suck it up SC you have a little more ways to go to catch up to the Bay State ! :P

Rocket448

Oct 22, 2009 6:03 AM CDT

Yes, John C. Calhoun was from South Carolina and I'm going to venture the opinion that you can be both brilliant and WRONG, as was the case with Calhoun. Known as the Arch Nullifier he insisted that states could nullify federal law. He hated the administrations he worked for...and Adams and Jackson despised him too. Calhoun is responsible for keeping Negroes out of the army from 1820 until the Civil War. Nevertheless he is counted among the greatest Senators of all time. Fortunately, the Federal Government was aided by 2 other great Senators: Clay and Webster.

brawne

Oct 22, 2009 3:48 AM CDT

You act like SC was any different during the Constitutional Congress. The state fired the first shot for the Civil War. They are not racists they are bizarrely for state's rights. Patrick Henry fought against ratifying the Constitution because he felt that the Northern majority would never understand the southern minority. Well, wasn't he right? Here's the deal about SC. It is hugely racist no doubt, but the blacks who deal--they don't move do they? You want to know why? SC is like a big restaurant where the whites are all having dinner and the blacks are all waiting tables. They make a lot more off of tips then if they'd gone to Detroit and built a car. Think I'm lying? There are more rich blacks in SC than in New York. Or Georgia--that is where black meets the dollar, SC was then and still is white minority. I lived there and think they're racist assholes. But, you can't sit in your always a majority enclave and throw stones. Actually, you shouldn't throw stones at all.

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South Carolina • unemployment • Confederate flag • political scandal • Mark Sanford • financial crisis • Joe Wilson

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SC Hopes Its Dumb Pols Don't Hurt Economy, Too