Editors question Haley's motives to publish

One of the benefits of small-town newspapers: Common sense, lack of pretense, no artifice.

Editors of the Greenwood Index-Journal have taken a circumspect look at Governor Nikki Haley's national book tour and observed that not only may Haley have jumped the gun as an author-politico, but she likely has taken valuable time away from the people who elected her Queen to serve her own interests.

But they do so with such an even temper and tone that it hardly seems a critique.

Anyone, it seems, can be an author these days. Whether it's launching a website, posting blogs or finding that publisher who is more than happy to print volumes of what anyone has to say - for a price - everyone can potentially be an author.

Gov. Nikki Haley has become an author, which is not to equate her newly released book, "Can't Is Not an Option," with the many self-published works available.

What generosity the editors display.

I, in fact, do equate Haley's text with the many self-published works available -- ones commonly called "vanity" projects -- as it was not an all-purpose, general publisher that published her notes, but one established solely for the purpose of publishing conservatives hawking their vanity projects. I discussed the products of the publisher known as Sentinel HC here. Its stable of "authors" includes such unliterary names as Bachmann, Limbaugh, Rumsfeld, Gingrich and Dole.

No doubt the governor has a story to share. The book delves into, as the subtitle "My American Story" suggests, her life growing up in South Carolina as the daughter of Indian immigrants. And the former state House member has a story to share about her political beliefs and philosophy, spelled out as she writes of her alignment with the tea party.

In addition to amassing piles of money to spend on campaigning, it seems another requirement of politicians these days is to crank out a book about themselves. Sure, it's rather expected from presidents after they have served their terms in office. Perhaps that pattern trickled down to others, including those who only have aspirations of being president or vice president.

Was there a single candidate for president this year who hasn't published a vanity project in an attempt to establish some intellectual gravitas? There must be something about adding "author" to one's resume that makes him or her extra-qualified to serve in the highest offices of the land.

I wonder, did Franklin Roosevelt publish a book before running for office? Did Abraham Lincoln? Certainly, it's well-known that John Kennedy did (or, perhaps, Kennedy did with the aid of speechwriter Ted Sorenson), but Kennedy's book wasn't about himself -- it wasn't a mem-wah -- but was instead a collection of eight biographies of political leaders who crossed party lines, defied their political base to make tough but right choices and who suffered loss of popular support for it. And, perhaps most significantly, Kennedy's text won a Pulitzer Prize.

Hard to imagine that Haley's vanity project will rise to that occasion.

Sarah Palin has done well for herself, for example. She might have failed to be the current vice president as she ran on the 2008 ticket with John McCain, but who can deny she has parlayed that into a more lucrative success story? She did not even have to complete her term as governor of Alaska to do so. Speaking engagements, a book and book-signing tours, a reality TV show and more have kept Palin in the limelight and filled her bank account well.

So what can we make of Haley authoring a book and releasing it barely a year into her term in office as governor?

If the book is only a way to share her story of how she faced challenges growing up in Bamberg, how she fought her way in the corporate and political world as a woman and outline her political philosophy, then why now? It seems it would be more appropriate, perhaps even more fulfilling, to wait until her term as governor is nearly up to publish her story.

This is common sense, but it defies marketing sense. Let's recall that Haley's book deal was announced very shortly after her inauguration. For a variety of reasons, she was then still a novelty act, and novelty gets attention; novelty sells products. It's easy to imagine a marketing expert selling Haley on the notion that a fawning public demanded to know her views on everything from health care reform to soap flakes.

It's equally easy to imagine that Haley agreed with the premise.

Marketing is about moving products, and products are most easily moved when they are still hot -- witness the red neon signs advertising "Hot Doughnuts" at 6 a.m. Cold product is harder to move; it winds up in the remainder bin at a deeply-discounted price.

Publishing a mem-wah halfway through her term of office demonstrates that Haley understands at least that premise. Trying to foist her story and her opinions on the public after they've had a thorough airing and been dismissed as nutty is not a successful marketing strategy.

"Can't Is Not an Option," in title and in the timing of its release, is more than a tale of Haley's personal and political paths; it is a clear indicator of the governor's higher political aspirations.

I shudder to think.

To her credit, Haley has risen through social and political ranks in South Carolina. She has experienced prejudice and she has succeeded in state politics. You don't have to like her politics to acknowledge how deftly she rocketed to become the state's first woman governor.

As she is fond of telling Pat Robertson, Stephen Colbert, the hostesses of "The View" and others, it says a lot about South Carolina that Haley was able to become governor.

I wholeheartedly agree that it says a lot about us. But I'm confident that my conclusion of what it says about us is different from Haley's conclusion of what it says about us.

Such a tale is one that fits like a glove for anyone such as Mitt Romney who very probably has to consider whether a Romney-Haley ticket is his ticket to the White House.

Perish the thought.

Even if Haley is not considering such a role, her book's release clearly indicates she has her sights set on more than one, or even two, terms in office as the Palmetto State's governor.

Must we suffer it? Must the children wait another whole generation for capable leadership?

That is neither good nor bad. We just hope writing the book did not take up too much valuable time that could have been spent on the duties of being governor. The political world must be vastly different from the normal business world. Not many CEOs have the time to produce an autobiography their first year on the job.

An astute observation that clearly contrasts our governor from a capable CEO.

Haley opts for cant in her vanity project

"Cant" is defined at Dictionary.com thusly:

noun
1. insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety.
2. the private language of the underworld.
3. the phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.
4. whining or singsong speech, especially of beggars.

verb (used without object)
5. to talk hypocritically.
6. to speak in the whining or singsong tone of a beggar; beg.

All of which gives the reader the appropriate frame through which to view Governor Nikki Haley's vanity project, a mem-wah titled "Can't Is Not An Option."

Such doorstoppers have become de rigueur for aspring politicos. One can't be taken seriously as a candidate until one has published a book with a trite but lofty title. It somehow proves one's literacy, and it shows that one has the tenacity and determination to write two hundred pages on a topic, which is especially misleading when the topic is oneself.

Might it be a better use of a governor's time to serve as governor than to generate one's own pablum while serving in office? For a governor who likes to brag that she spends all of her days trying to bring economic development to South Carolina, she seems to have spent an inordinate chunk of the people's time drafting a pros-y self-portrait. Let's recall that soon after the announcement of her book deal, she was caught tapping on her iPad in the White House itself, during a speech to the nation's assembled governors by the President of the United States.

Which is the definition of gauche, it turns out.

In this week's edition of Statehouse Report, Charlestonian Andy Brack publishes a respectful and straightforward review of Haley's attempt -- which leads me to respect Brack even more, as I've not been able to bear looking at the thing.

Gov. Nikki Haley's new book is sure to cause three differing reactions:

Tea partiers will fall in love with Haley again for wearing their white hat and repetitively incanting the rhetoric of limited government that bashes the political establishment.

Mainstream Republicans and moderates will spend a lot of time rolling their eyes at the 200-plus pages of gratuitous, preening arrogance, inane recollections and my-way-or-the-highway declarations of revisionism.

Liberals won't be able to finish it because it's such an obvious political attempt to propel the governor to Washington, sooner as a vice-presidential candidate (despite lots of protest by her) or later as a U.S. senator.

If you like Haley and want to be pumped up, go ahead and spend $28 for what seems more like a transcribed version of a lot of self-taped conversations than a book. Otherwise, don't bother. Haley is trying too hard to be a real-life fairy tale.

Nevertheless, here are some observations of Haley's “Can't Is Not an Option:”

Childhood tale. The best part of the book is the beginning in which Haley delves into her childhood as a member of the only Indian family in Bamberg. She talks convincingly about challenges, goodness and the American Dream without too much tea party propaganda.

Philosophical insight. When you read about how Haley worked as a bookkeeper as a teen-ager for her mother's store, you get a better understanding of the anti-government rhetoric that fuels her politics. One such lesson:

“I learned early that we couldn't control our revenue stream – we couldn't control who decided to walk in the door of the store and spend their money. All we could control was our expenditures. So we were constantly focused on tightening our overhead. … I noticed how hard it was to make a dollar and how easy it was for government to take it away.”

What rankles about this statement by Haley, a self-professed policy wonk, is its naiveté about government. Unlike business, government can control revenue streams by raising or lowering taxes, or by providing incentives to bring in more businesses, all of which will increase the amount of money put in the state's pot.

Second, government can't always be run like a business, regardless of the GOP talking points. Sometimes, government is the only entity that's large enough or has enough of a cushion to do really big things, such as provide electricity to rural areas, build interstate roads, provide affordable college opportunities to millions, take care of the health of old people and more. For Haley, government is not a pathway to progress, but an impediment that has to be overcome. In the long term, that kind of vision of government isn't in South Carolina's best interest.

Courage. In the book, Haley often describes how she had courage to take on the establishment which “blackballed, demoted and humiliated” her for trying to get recorded roll call votes to boost accountability in the state House. Interestingly, she did not name the leader of the establishment, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, although she cut at him left and right for eight pages. Then in prose that would gag even a teen romance writer, she celebrated a “turnabout is fair play” moment as governor when she signed into law the bill she had pushed while in the House:

“The day didn't belong to me. It belonged to the people. I looked out and saw my parents, and I thought of what they had always taught me: If you fight for the right things, God will take care of the rest. It had taken a little while, but in the end my parents were right. The people had fought. Their cause was just. And now God was smiling down on South Carolina.”

Playing the victim. Haley also complained about people who saw themselves as victims, but within pages she would paint herself as a victim of Harrell, Gov. Mark Sanford or something else. After a while, it got more than a little monotonous.

Bottom line: Plant a garden. It's spring. There are better things to do than read this book.

Optional reading: "Can't Is Not An Option"

Google "Sentinel HC", or plug that into the internal search engine at Amazon.com, and you'll find what resembles the right wing's secret library. Imagine a Bizzaro-world catalog of Thomas Jefferson's treatises on democracy, perverted.

You'll find titles like "She's the Boss: The Disturbing Truth About Nancy Pelosi," which posits the frightening question "Why Is Nancy Pelosi the Most Dangerous Woman in America?" For those interested, a brand-new hardback edition is available at Amazon for $1.67.

A crisp new hardback copy of "The Secret Plot to Make Ted Kennedy President: Inside the Real Watergate Conspiracy" can be had for $3.19, one of the publisher's more expensive offerings.

How about this one: "The Dirty Dozen: How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government and Eroded Freedom," which calls itself "a non-lawyer's guide to the worst Supreme Court decisions of the modern era." Oddly, the dozen doesn't include Bush v Gore (2000).

This one's a page-turner, I suspect: "The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down a Rising Star." It promises to tell "the real story of the Republican vice presidential nominee and her collision with the elite liberal media," but I wonder if, like the new HBO film "Game Change," it discusses Palin's collision with high-school world history?

This is too much fun:
"Co-ed Combat: The New Evidence That Women Shouldn't Fight the Nation's Wars"
"A Field Guide to Left-Wing Wackos: And What to Do About Them"
"Your Teacher Said What?!: Defending Our Kids from the Liberal Assault on Capitalism"
"Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One"

And then you get to the autobiographies, or "memoirs": Here you'll find Donald Rumsfeld's book "Known and Unknown" (Amazon price, new hardcover, $3.33); Michele Bachmann's "Core of Conviction: My Story" (Amazon price, new hardcover, $4.00); disgraced former Congressman Tom DeLay's "No Retreat, No Surrender: One American's Fight" (Amazon price, new hardcover, one red cent).

And this insider biography: "A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush" (Amazon price, new hardcover, $1.85).

Scratch a little more, and you'll learn that Sentinel HC was created as a subsidiary of Penguin Group, the mega-publisher, in 2003 to tap the market of conservative book-buyers. (Paging Stephen Colbert for a ruling on this. Stephen?)

That year, Penguin assigned Adrian Zackheim to helm the new offshoot, and they celebrated his assignment with this announcement:

He has a long track record of publishing books by notable conservatives, including Margaret Thatcher, Newt Gingrich, and Bob Dole.

Capable pedigree, to be sure.

Perhaps it was destiny, then, that Sentinel HC would become the publishing home to South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

And, given Amazon's markdown of so many of Sentinel HC's master works, perhaps we now better understand Haley's opposition to locating an Amazon distribution center in her adopted county of Lexington. How embarrassing it will be to find her new book, "Can't Is Not An Option," remaindered so close to home.

Still, Amazon is doing its part to spray pretty colors on this situation. Haley's book will be available in stores April 3, but it's available to pre-order on Amazon.com already, and the promotional text is breathy. Let's read it together:

A rising star in the Republican Party shares her inspirational memoir of family, hope, and the power of the American Dream.

Decades before their daughter surprised the nation

The nation? She shocked the nation? I'm not sure the entire nation was paying such close attention to who South Carolina's installed in their governor's office in 2010 -- after all, could the average American name five of the last ten South Carolina governors? For that matter, could Haley herself name them?

...by becoming governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley's parents had a dream. Ajit and Raj Randhawa were well-educated, well-off Sikhs in the Punjab region of India. But despite their high social status, the Randhawas wanted more for their family-the opportunities that only America could offer.

So they left behind all they had known and settled in Bamberg, South Carolina (population: 2,500).

Clearly, this promises to be a heart-warming story that celebrates America's liberal immigration policy. I'm hooked already.

As the first Indian family in a small Southern town in the early 1970s, the Randhawas faced ignorance, prejudice, and sometimes blatant hostility.

Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise. If only the Randhawas had spent a few minutes reading about South Carolina history before buying their tickets, they might have discovered that South Carolina has had a three-hundred-year-old love affair with ignorance, prejudice, and sometimes blatant hostility toward anyone who's not a white male, including white females. So the Randhawas weren't exactly discovering virgin territory. An ounce of prevention, as we say...

Nikki remembers stopping at a roadside produce stand with her father, who always wore his traditional Sikh turban. Within minutes, two police cars pulled to make sure they weren't thieves.

Sadly, poor white children got that treatment, too, not to mention African-Americans of every economic stripe.

But the Randhawas taught their children that they should never think of themselves as victims. They stressed that if you work hard and stay true to yourself, you can overcome any obstacle. The key is believing that can't is not an option.

Admirable lesson. However, it seems strange that a book about eschewing victimhood begins with examples of victimhood.

But this is a pattern, isn't it? After all, Sarah Palin was victimized by the liberal media and by Senator John McCain's evil campaign staff. Michele Bachmann was victimized by the liberal media and Newsweek magazine. I haven't read Margaret Thatcher's book, but I wonder if she was victimized by anyone on her climb to ruthlessness?

The family struggled to make ends meet while starting a clothing business in their living room, eventually growing it into a multimillion- dollar success. At age twelve, Nikki started to do the bookkeeping and taxes after school.

Really? A multi-million-dollar success, but it couldn't afford an accountant? And as recently as the mid-2000s, it couldn't afford to pay her a salary more than $25,000, according to her IRS filing?

Well, okay. It's a book. James Frey wrote a book, too, called "A Million Little Pieces," and his was non-fiction too. Oprah Winfrey said so.

After graduating from college and entering the business world, she watched business owners like her parents battle government bureaucracy and overregulation.

Most college graduates are watching foreign want ads for high-paying jobs, because there aren't any here to fill. But when Haley graduated college, she watched battles with government bureaucracy and overregulation. Okay.

Her frustration inspired her to get into politics and run for the state legislature. That first campaign, against an entrenched incumbent, led to racial and religious slurs and threats-but Haley, like her parents, refused to back down.

She refused to back down! South Carolina demanded a young woman with meager qualifications to take charge and lead, and Haley refused to back down from its demand! She fit the bill!

She won on a promise to fight for reform, lean budgets, and government accountability, which is exactly what she did-much to the dismay of South Carolina's old guard politicians.

That, and Larry Koon's re-election campaign was lackluster to the point of being non-existent.

Soon she had a reputation as a conservative leader who could get things done. In the same state where her family was once ridiculed, she inspired a diverse grassroots following. In November 2010 she was elected South Carolina's first female governor and first nonwhite governor,

Um, I feel strange mentioning this, but didn't Haley herself mark government documents declaring herself "white"?

I'm sure I read that somewhere, like Mother Jones magazine in July 2011, in a note by reporter Siddhartha Mahanta, maybe:

For the children of immigrants, the road to acceptance in America can be a bumpy one. There will be pain. There will be embarrassment. There will be relentless, cruel accusations from your brethren that you are assimilating at the expense of your true cultural heritage. And the stories of the children of immigrants who rise to positions of influence and power are especially inspiring given the challenges before them.

Not so inspiring? Lying about where you're from, like South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), the American-born child of Indian parents, might have done. The Associated Press reports that in 2001, Haley listed her race as "white" on her voter registration form.
...
For Haley, voter fraud is a big deal. She recently signed a new law requiring that voters present photo identification at the polls that, she says, will "improve South Carolina in terms of integrity, accountability and transparency." Voter ID laws, of course, don't actually decrease voter fraud (which is virtually nonexistent). Instead, they mostly keep Democratic voters away from the polls.
...
But even though she didn't exactly commit voter fraud, her self-race-mis-classification seems to undermine her credibilty as someone who wants to prevent people from lying on their way to the voting booth.

Yes, I'm sure it was Siddhartha Mahanta's item in the July 2011 edition of Mother Jones magazine. I knew I read it somewhere.

I suspect someone from Haley's office will call up Sentinel HC and Amazon to have that corrected posthaste.

Now, to continue:

...and only the second Indian American governor in the country.

Haley's story, as told firsthand in this inspiring memoir, is a testament to the power of determination, faith, and family. And it's proof that the American Dream is still strong and true in the twenty-first century.

I was sure it was going to say, also, it's proof that, thanks to our hyper-targeted marketing culture, anyone can write a book and get it published these days.

The Washington Post, not to be outdone, weighed in with a mini-review eight months ago:

Nikki Haley’s memoir, “Can’t Is Not an Option: My Story,” will be published in January 2012. So will the two negatives in the title produce a positive outcome for the South Carolina governor?

Even negative press is good press, right?

Will Haley's book feature a chapter on veto overrides?

Really, a book?

Her Excellency, Governor Nikki Haley, has been in office slightly more than five months.

In that time, she has booted the state university's largest benefactor in history from the board of trustees and replaced her with a campaign contributor. See Moore, Darla.

She fired the state's popular and effective retirement system director and quickly named a replacement without notifying key officers. See Boykin, Peggy.

She has presided over a rise in the state's unemployment rate, seeing it return to double digits. See Job Creation, Lack of.

Though millions of South Carolinians, with jobs and without, stretch the weekly groceries bill with ground beef and Hamburger Helper, she has lived well on the public grace, enjoying "menus with Peruvian squid tubes, rabbit loin, shiitake mushrooms and other exotic ingredients," plus "small amounts of Fresh Market Chilean sea bass at $25.99 a pound and Yellowfin tuna at $21.99 a pound, and a number of Publix sushi platters," as well as spending public funds "to buy a Riedel wine decanter and Riedel cabernet/merlot wine glasses." See "Let Them Eat Cake."

She has offended lawmakers in both parties with petty slights, withholding invitations to a Governors Mansion from some, turning another away at the gate. See Brown, Boyd; also Howard, Leon; also "Petulance and Pettiness"; also Not the People's House.

She injected herself gracelessly -- and has infamously sought to drag national candidates -- into a dispute between a federal agency and a corporate campaign contributor operating in South Carolina. See Boeing.

She has fueled a well-publicized feud with another elected executive officer, declaring him "irrelevant" to the state's official business. See Loftis, Curtis.

She bungled an agreement made by her predecessor's economic development team with one of the world's largest companies, who had begun construction on a location in South Carolina but shut down and withdrew when she engaged in a foolish game of chicken over tax breaks. See Amazon.

After campaigning on a platform of "transparency," she has conducted closed-door meetings with national bond-rating agencies and shut the state's retirees out of discussions about their retirement system. See Griswold, Sam.

She embarrassed the state by ignoring the President of the United States during a briefing of governors in the State Dining Room of the White House, and checking email on her iPad instead. See Reuters Photographer, Caught by a.

She provoked legal action from the President Pro Tem of the state Senate by issuing an executive order in contravention of constitutional powers and state law, losing the fight before the state Supreme Court. See McConnell, Glenn. See also Supreme Court.

She earned a stunning rebuke from the full legislature by issuing 35 vetoes and having all but nine overridden, just as quickly and spectacularly as were the vetoes of her predecessor, and garnered an especially raw accusation of double-dealing and dishonesty from a lawmaker from her own home legislative delegation. See Bingham, Kenny.

And she bragged, oblivious, to a small audience of fans in Florence this spring that she hadn't made any mistakes while in office. See Hubris.

All the while, apparently, Her Excellency has been writing a book, no doubt expounding on the highest principles of governance and her nascent, derivative political philosophy. (See Sanford, Mark.)

S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley has a book deal.

Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), said Wednesday that Haley’s “Can’t is Not an Option” will come out in January.

Haley, a Republican and Tea Party favorite, was elected last year. At 39, she is the country’s youngest governor and only the second Indian-American governor.

In an interview in March, Haley said writing had been “therapeutic” and that she would cover everything from growing up in rural South Carolina to her contentious 2010 campaign, when she faced — and denied — allegations of infidelity.

Haley said she was not planning a run for national office. Her literary representative, Washington attorney Robert Barnett, has negotiated deals for Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Notice the names that her "literary representative" has aided in the past: Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, all presidents of the United States, including two two-term presidents. What is it that governor-for-five-months Haley has to offer that compares with these political giants? A Newsweek magazine cover?

The title is particularly trite: "Can't is Not an Option." Here's what "cant" is: "cant" is "empty, uncritical thought or talk."

"Cant" is also the "jargon of a group, often implying its use to exclude or mislead people outside the group."

"Cant" is also "insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety."

Yes, I know. She's using the word "can't" as a contraction for "cannot," as in "Haley can't play well with others" or "Her Excellency can't understand why people won't just do as she instructs them."

Here's a fun project for readers: What do you imagine will be the chapter titles of Haley's book?
Example: "Voters Would Soon Learn What Hit Them, Hard"

Here's another one: What do you imagine would comprise Haley's top ten list of governing principles?
Example: Reward your campaign contributors early and well.

Or another: What should be the subtitle of Haley's book?
Example: "Can't is Not an Option: If You Can Read This, We're Spending Too Much on Education"