If George Bush already has South Carolina's 8 electoral votes inked into his column, he may be a bit premature. After years of de-emphasizing ties with the national Democratic Party, the state's Democrats are as fervently "Anybody But Bush" as anyone in the country.
At Newberry County's Democratic convention last night, the crowd was large and the mood a blend of optimism and feistiness. Understand that this is a rural county in South Carolina. While it has retained its Democratic majority in local elections in contrast to neighboring counties, the national ticket has not fared well here for some time. Local Democrats typically run away from the national Democratic Party.
Not last night. The outgoing party chairman started things off with a catalogue of Bush's lies and broken promises. A former state senator and statewide office holder invoked FDR, Truman and Kennedy as the foundation of the Democratic tradition. After a pause, he said, "And Bill Clinton too. Think how much worse off we'd be if Clinton hadn't done what he did to straighten out the deficit and create jobs." The crowd responded with enthusiastic "Amens" and applause. One young attorney was attending her first Democratic meeting and spoke about how her parents were Democrats, her husband was a Democrat and she hoped her children would be Democrats. "My son asked me the other day," she said, "what the difference was between Republicans and Democrats. I told him that Republicans believe in tax cuts and helping the privileged, and Democrats are intelligent, caring, open-minded people who look out for everybody." The crowd roared.
George Bush may not lose South Carolina, but from what I saw last night, he'd better not take it for granted.