Will Nikki Kill the SC Primary?

the highly-anticipated, first in the south South Carolina primary may not happen next year.  Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to veto the portion of the state budget that allocates $680,000 for the state election commission to help pay for it.  At one point, the state was looking at an $800,000 million budget shortfall (pocket change compared to what Austin is dealing with) and Gov. Hailey has said that the state could not afford to help fund the primary.  Current budget projections are not so dire, but Hailey is expected to hold firm on this as well as funding for education and the arts.  The South Carolina Democratic Party (yes, there is one) has no plans for a primary because President Obama is unopposed, so the veto would only effect the Republicans.  The Palmetto State has chosen the GOP nominee every time since Reagan in 1980.  Past state GOP chairman Katon Dawson (Katie for short?) has said that the state party should "man up," raise the money and pay for the primary itself.  Republicans just love to say "man up."      

150 Years Ago Today

As Edward Ball said in his editorial in yesterday's New York Times:

"The authors of these papers flattered themselves that they’d conjured up a second American Revolution. Instead, the Secession Convention was the beginning of the Civil War, which killed some 620,000 Americans; an equivalent war today would send home more than six million body bags."

Think about that the next time you hear politicians casually throw around words like "secession" and "states' rights."