Here's a very good article about South Carolina. They interviewed the republican governor who basically says that unless things change in SC wrt jobs, Bush is very vulnerable on the economy. If Bush is vulnerable in SC, he is vulnerable everywhere imho.
Loss of jobs a major political factor in S.C.
Republican governor says Edwards picked up on state's anxiety about economy
COLUMBIA, S.C. - When President Bush came to South Carolina on Thursday -- following on the heels of the Democratic presidential candidates, just as he had done (supposedly by coincidence) after the New Hampshire primary -- the headline in The State newspaper read: "Metro area job losses among nation's worst."
The story, streamed across the top of Page 1, reported that the two counties comprising the Columbia metropolitan area had shed 10,300 jobs last year and had 17,600 fewer jobs at the end of 2003 than were here four years earlier. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 3.3 percent job loss in 2003 in Columbia was exceeded only by those recorded in Steubenville, Ohio; Saginaw, Mich.; San Jose, Calif., and Lawrence, Mass.
Richland County Council Chairwoman Bernice Scott was quoted as saying that she now encounters more constituents with postgraduate degrees but without jobs. "It's awful," she told the newspaper. "The American dream is getting an education and getting a job. And the more education you have, the better the job. But there are no jobs to be had."
As it happened, Bush visited Charleston, not Columbia, and he chose to talk more about the war on terrorism, port security and homeland defense than the economy. But the headline here put an exclamation point on the reality that greeted all the Democratic candidates who campaigned in last Tuesday's primary -- a reality that helped power populist Sen. John Edwards to his 15-point victory.
Fortunately for Bush, he said, "South Carolina is a very conservative state," and one with deep historical, economic and cultural ties to the military. So many South Carolinians have friends or family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, "they want to support the president if only to support those kids who are over there." That gives Bush "a degree of insulation he might not have many other places."
Then Sanford returned to his main theme. "The economy will be a bigger issue than people realize," he said. "People will vote their pocketbooks. It's still the economy, stupid."
charlotte.com |
