South Carolina’s own Gov. Moonbeam

So what part of “leadership” does Gov. Mark Sanford NOT understand?

According to the morning papers (Greenville News; The State), the governor says he’s concerned about the state’s high unemployment but doesn’t understand why it’s high when tax collections and job growth are up.

In fact, he’s so concerned that he is going to take the bold step of leadership to seek a university study AFTER the November elections. Why? Because he doesn’t want the move to seem “political.”

This guy just must be an idiot. It’s “political” to NOT do the study now because waiting makes it look like he’s trying to save his hide. It’s the contradiction of leadership to wait.

Perhaps Sanford should phone an economist for a lesson.
Here’s how Clemson’s Bruce Yandle explained the “riddle” of government, according to The Greenville News:

Bruce Yandle, a Clemson University economist, said the unemployment numbers and tax revenues aren’t necessarily connected. He said it is possible to have a growing economy with a rising unemployment rate. For instance, he said, if an economy begins to grow, more people may decide to seek jobs.

Yandle also said it is possible that much of the increase in tax revenue reflects a growth in income of affluent workers or business owners, not an increase in the number of workers.

And this, according to The State:

Sanford has said so many people are moving to South Carolina, job growth can’t keep up with population growth.

Economists say that’s unlikely. People tend to stay put because of family even after losing their jobs, said Frank Hefner, a College of Charleston economist.

South Carolina’s population has grown over the past several years, much of it probably due to retiring baby boomers. But if they no longer want to work, the population-growth argument “falls flat on its face,” [Federal Reserve economist Ray] Owens said.

Hefner said a more likely scenario is that more South Carolinians are looking for jobs. During economic downturns, people give up looking for work, but when the economy picks up, they re-enter the labor market, he said. For example, a family might decide to have two working parents instead of one, he said.

Vote against Mark Sanford

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, named one of the nation's three worst governors by Time magazine, has perpetuated SCAMS on the South Carolina voting public for years. He's says one thing and does (or doesn't do) another:

• Sanford is the fellow known for sleeping on a futon in his office in the U.S. Capitol during the six years he was a congressman. Problem is: He had a Capitol Hill apartment where he really stayed.
• Sanford is the fellow who claims he is getting together well with state lawmakers in the General Assembly, when in reality he strives hard to set himself apart so he can run as an outsider who wants to "clean up" the Statehouse — even though it is run by members of his party!
• Sanford claims credit for bringing thousands of jobs to the state, while ignoring the fact that South Carolina has the nation's FOURTH HIGHEST unemployment rate and ranks as the nation's worst state for job creation. Throw on top of that the THOUSANDS of manufacturing jobs lost while he has been governor and you have the worst economic records in recent South Carolina history.
• Sanford tells people he has a "farm" in Beaufort County. In reality, this farm is an old-timey plantation of hundreds of acres.
• Sanford is the guy whose bumper stickers in 2002 said "Leadership." Huh? When has he been a leader over the last three years? All of those times he got his bills passed in the Legislature (Sanford has had no major items of a legislative agenda passed in three years.)

Mark Sanford is doing what he always has — playing fast and loose with the truth. Don't get scammed into voting for this guy — who may be the worst governor in the whole nation.