It looks like South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's political grandstanding may be paying off:
In the ongoing debate over the economic stimulus package, South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford has made all the right enemies. The White House has brushed aside Sanford’s threat to turn down $700 billion million allotted for his state. Republicans in Sanford’s own state have hinted that they’ll override any attempt to veto the cash ...
Sanford’s public battle with the White House has won him support with a more important group of people: the Republicans who will pick their next standard-bearer in 2012. According to some big-money Republican donors, party strategists who worked on the 2008 campaign and activists who powered the quixotic presidential bid of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Sanford is emerging as the leader for the next Republican nomination.
“His profile has grown dramatically over the last month,” said Floyd Brown, a Republican strategist who lives in Washington state best-known for creating the 1988 “Willie Horton” ads against Michael Dukakis. “Amongst the activists who really matter, in Iowa, in New Hampshire, in the South, there is a lot of positive talk about him. A lot of people asking, ‘What do you know about this guy?’”
And while Sanford isn't winning the early polling battle for 2012 ... in fact, he's barely a blip on the radar ... it looks like his strategy is paying off. For his personal ambitions anyway. For the people of South Carolina? Not so much.