Time Magazine just did a series on the 5 Best Governors in America, three of whom are wonderful Democrats (Mark Warner, Kathleen Sebelius, and Janet Napolitano). Time then profiled the America's Worst Governors, and
mine ended up on it, along with Bob Taft.
Lemme tell you. Time Magazine knows their shit, because Mark Sanford couldn't govern his way out of a paper bag.
As a U.S. Representative in the 1990s, Mark Sanford often slept on an office futon instead of renting a Washington apartment. That kind of conspicuous frugality helped him get elected Governor of South Carolina in 2002. But a growing chorus of critics, including leaders of his own G.O.P., fear that his thrift has brought the state's economy to a standstill. This summer Standard & Poor's lowered South Carolina's coveted AAA-bond rating to AA+, citing unemployment of 6.3% and a per capita income ($27,172) stuck in the nation's bottom fifth. The state had just lost its bid for a $500 million Airbus plant; Sanford was widely accused of making a miserly effort to lure the aerospace giant.
Business leaders are losing patience with Sanford's vetoes of budget items like trade centers and tourism marketing. Even G.O.P. bosses charge that he is worse at economic development than at grandstanding, as when he visited the legislature last year carrying piglets to protest what he considered pork-barrel spending.
You see, Mark Sanford was one of the pieces of trash that Bush blew brought ashore during the semi-wave of 2002. His Democratic predecessor, Jim Hodges, wasn't perfect, but he did deliver on his major campaign promise, a state lottery that would fund college scolarships like Georgia's HOPE Scolarships (ours are called LIFE scholarships). Hodges also improved South Carolina's abysmal schools and worked with the legislature. Alas, with the wind blowing so strongly here for the GOP in 2002, merely having an R next to his name was enough, and Sanford won 53-47 over Hodges.
On the other hand, Mark Sanford is so ideologically beholden to the Grover Norquist school of management that he doesn't get anything done. For example, there was a major pharmaceutical company that was looking at building a plant in Greenville. To attempt to lure the plant, the legislature, in a bipartisan manner, passed something called the "Life Sciences Act" which contained tax incentives and infrastructure to attempt to seal the deal. Sanford then proceeded to veto the bill saying it was "pork". There you go, something you thought you'd never see-an ANTI-BUSINESS REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR!
The Legislature then overrode him and made him Governor Irrelevant, and has proceeded to just run the state more or less on its own. But we're still stuck with him for another two years, and even then having an R next to his name makes electing a Democrat a tricky proposition. That said, South Carolinians are starting to wise up to the fact that Sanford is a moonbat who has no clue what he's doing.
However, we have fielded a strong candidate in Tommy Moore, a State Senator who hails from the generally more conservative part of the state and will have crossover appeal. Sanford is incompetent, and even the reddest part of America recognizes it.