Clinton, speakers to grads: Don’t be afraid to fail

MAY 7, 2012 — It’s the season for graduation speeches and former President Bill Clinton gave a good one Saturday to the 235 graduates of Columbia College in our capital city. (Watch the speech.)

He started, in typical engaging Clinton style, with a story. He bet the graduates that they wouldn’t remember much about the speaker because of so many other things that were going on that day. But he added that he remembered the whole commencement address of the Washington, D.C., mayor who spoke at his graduation from Georgetown in 1968 as a huge storm cloud threatened to deluge the ceremony.

SC is case study on how not to run an election

MAY 4, 2012 — Just as South Carolina wipes away one pie that hit it in the face, another sails in and lands with a big splat on the state’s reputation.

One day after hearing oral arguments on a case of whether more than 100 people didn’t properly file disclosure paperwork when they signed up to be candidates, the S.C. Supreme Court Wednesday ruled they couldn’t appear on the ballots.

The Legislature reeled as complicated election calculus in House and Senate elections got turned on its head. Both major political parties got caught with their pants down for being slack in nurturing candidates on the proper way to file. And voters sighed, again embarrassed by a state that can’t keep from doing dumb things.

Push SC’s agenda, not someone else’s

APRIL 27, 2012 — If you have ever been caught with your hand in the cookie jar, you can imagine what some big corporations and conservative state legislators are feeling today about their association with the American Legislative Exchange Council.

The group, informally known as “ALEC,” has been in the news over the past week for how it allows lobbyists and legislators from around the country to cozy up to each other at conventions and special meetings where they work together to craft model legislation for bills to introduce in statehouses across the country.

On hold: High court needs to rule on 1993 case

APRIL 20, 2012 — It takes four years for most high school students to graduate from high school. Most college students traditionally also graduate in four years.

But four years apparently isn’t enough time for the state Supreme Court to come to a conclusion about a festering school funding case first filed by poor South Carolina school districts in 1993. Yes, 1993. A student in first grade back then should, by now, be out of college and could even have a master’s degree. This thing has been going on that long.

2012 elections won’t change much at Statehouse

APRIL 13, 2012 — With 170 Statehouse seats up for election this year, you’d think there would be a lot of change ahead.

Not really. Based on an analysis of the primary contests in June and general elections in November, about the only thing you’ll probably see in Columbia is a few more Republicans.