S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley visits our campus

Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina--and maybe its best looking governor ever--is quick on her feet, handles herself well in a town hall meeting and seems to really like being chief executive of the Palmetto State.

Even if our state is reeling from 11 percent unemployment and seems--if you take all the headlines seriously--to be perilously close to staying mired in a recession.

The message from Gov. Haley tonight at Winthrop, where she spoke to and fielded questions from about 250 students, faculty, staff and others, was that yes, South Carolina has been through hard times, but things are getting better.

Since January 2011, she said her administration has had the pleasure and honor of announcing 13,000 new jobs in South Carolina.

And $2.6 billion has been invested in South Carolina by companies since that same month, she said.

"So things are looking good," the 39-year-old governor with shoulder-length dark hair reassured the Winthrop audience.

She pledged that her administration's number one priority is "Jobs, jobs, jobs!"

Haley, born in Bamberg, S.C., seemed unfazed by some of the criticism and sarcasm she's heard about her recent directive that S.C. state government employees answer their office phone with: "It's a great day in South Carolina. How may I help you?"

That because she said it IS a great day in our state, and those same employees are only reminding folks (and themselves) that they work for the taxpayers of South Carolina.

She said her directive is meant as a means to help change the culture of state government.

Several folks asked Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, about what state government's role should be in funding the arts in South Carolina. Haley responded that while she and her family love the arts and theatre and such, her priority right now is getting jobs for South Carolineans. The arts community in our state should lean on the business community for financial support, just like other charities and nonprofits do.

For retirees in the audience--or soon-to-be state government retirees--she offered a bit of a damper, saying that a S.C. state employee wanting full retirement benefits will soon have to work 30 years instead of the current 28 years of required service. (Ouch, this old blogger will get his 28 years of state government service in, effective May 15, 2012, when he plans to start living the more relaxed life of a retiree.) "We have to do this. We have to bite the bullet for the good of state employees," Haley said.

But please don't make that 30-year mark apply to yours truly! 28 years is long enough for me!

Overall, I think Haley did a commendable job handling herself and those who shot questions at her tonight. She's at ease and confident and seems sincere about devoting a lot of her energy to getting more jobs for South Carolineans.

She wasn't on time--taking the stage at the DiGiorgio Student Center about 25 minutes AFTER she had been advertised to start. But when she did speak, she was poised, smoothe and intent on winning over her audience with her message of jobs and optimism for the future of our state.

Our state's first female governor ever reminded us that just because someone is a politician doesn't make him or her a bad person, although "you do have to hold legislators' hands to the fire...It's a tough job they have in Columbia, but when they do something good, we should praise them."

The graduate of Clemson University and the youngest current governor of any state in the U.S. spoke and answered questions for about 45 minutes. I managed to get fairly close to her with my camcorder. Here are a few frames of video from immediately after she spoke tonight.