If there's a victim here, besides South Carolina's working class and unemployed, it's Commerce Secretary Bobby Hitt, who was sent by Haley to take the blame, issue symbolic mea culpas, and invite the bus to back over him.
Gov. Nikki Haley’s Commerce Department chief took the blame Tuesday for providing information that led to a recent report that the first-term Republican is overstating her success at job creation.
Bobby Hitt, director of the state Commerce Department, told Haley that he apologized for a jobs list released to the press last week that included jobs that were not yet announced, others that were recruited by former Gov. Mark Sanford and his administration, and 750 for Amazon.com, which Haley did not want to give a tax break to for locating a facility in the state.
Hitt said he regrets the breakdown of jobs on the list overshadowed Haley’s economic development work.
The Associated Press published a report Sunday that found Haley was inflating the 10,000-job figure she widely touted in recent weeks. Eventually, the AP found the governor’s economic development efforts have led to about 9,000 jobs since January, including 4,000 from Wal-Mart.
The focus should be on the accomplishments, Hitt said at Haley’s Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
“There is plenty to be proud of right now,” he said.
But deflecting blame onto Hitt wasn't sufficient for Her Excellency. She did her best to play the victim, but victimhood doesn't suit her well.
Haley accused the media of not giving her a break.
“The press will never want to say anything positive about us,” Haley said. “So, that is OK. If it’s 8,000 jobs or 9,000 jobs, any of my governor colleagues would love to have those numbers. One day the press will understand that being positive is a good thing.”
After the meeting, Haley told reporters that she is after one thing.
“What I want so desperately is, I want the people of this state to feel good about the things we’re doing right,” she said. “It makes me laugh that the press is so determined to talk about the negatives. All I am saying is make sure we talk about the great things.”
What's startling is that Haley has unwittingly entered the world of public school educators -- perhaps one day she will understand that this is a good thing -- and finds it an awful place.
Consider, if you will, how realistic it sounds if we take Haley's brief comments at yesterday's meeting, change the speaker to any public school educator in South Carolina, and replace a key word here and there:
"The [governor/state superintendent] will never want to say anything positive about us."
"If it’s 8,000 [successful students] or 9,000 [successful students], any of my [principal/teacher] colleagues would love to have those numbers."
"One day the [governor/state superintendent] will understand that being positive is a good thing."
"What I want so desperately is, I want the people of this state to feel good about the things we’re doing right." (Hey, no change needed at all.)
"It makes me laugh that the [governor/state superintendent] is so determined to talk about the negatives."
"All I am saying is make sure we talk about the great things." (No change needed here, either.)
For good measure, let's throw in one of Hitt's comments to the educato-mator and see if the comment can be transmuted to sounds realistically like a public school educator:
"The focus should be on the accomplishments."
"There is plenty to be proud of right now."
See, it works perfectly.
Governor, welcome to our world.
Now that you've gotten a taste of it, maybe you'll understand why most educators won't fall to worshipping after you berate them, misrepresent their intentions, discount their efforts, minimize their achievements and generally undermine their professional choices in the future.
And Governor, come back when you can.
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