Boy, have times ever changed!!

Michael Barone's Quick Take on yesterday's primaries.

I didn't find anything surprising in his hurried analysis, but I did find some interesting tidbits.  For example:

Note also that 3rd district Republican Congressman Gresham Barrett, who also voted for TARP, did not fare well in his race for governor.  He did in fact make it into the runoff, winning 22% of the votes to 49% for state Representative Nikki Haley.  But he carried only 4 counties in his congressional district and lost the other 42 counties in the state to Haley.  I am told that almost all South Carolina Republican politicians detest Haley as a cheap shot artist who takes demagogic stands against all other incumbents (in the mode of outgoing Governor Mark Sanford, last seen on the Appalachian Trail heading to Argentina; Sanford's estranged wife Jenny Sanford as well as Sarah Palin endorsed Haley).  But I suspect that Barrett may decide that extending this contest into a June 22 runoff is a waste of his time and psychic energy.  The insiders-don't-like-her theme doesn't have the timbre of a winner.

Interestingly, Haley is the daughter of Sikh immigrants from India.  If elected governor she would be the second Republican governor of a Southern state, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, to be the child of immigrants from South Asia.  Who'd a thunk it? And when you're putting your mind around that, consider that the leader in the Republican primary for the open South Carolina 1 seat relinquished by retiree Henry Brown is Tim Scott, who may be the most conservative and assuredly is the only black Republican in the South Carolina legislature.  He led Paul Thurmond, son of the late Governor and Senator Strom Thurmond, by a 31%-16% margin; in third place with 14% was Carroll Campbell, son of the late Congressman and Governor Carroll Campbell.

The times they have changed.  (Though not all of our "mainstream" journalists recognize that fact.)

- 6:29 AM, 9 June 2010   [link]