Dear Friends,

With regret I must announce that The Beat has shut down after 69 issues over a 31-month span that represented a continuation of a newspaper that began in 1991 as The Edge , morphed into Creative Loafing-Greenville and then became MetroBeat . With my wife Amber and the dedicated efforts of a talented group of writers, artists and photographers, we stood firm in our desire to offer the Upstate a lively journal of diverse opinion. That task will fall to others now, but make no mistake – those voices will not be stilled. Their presentation will increasingly be on-line, as opposed to the more costly print product that requires a level of support hard to obtain without excessive pandering in a free publication funded solely by advertising dollars.

For myself, I will step back and concentrate on supporting the wife and child who have borne the brunt of our efforts here. Maybe I will have time to write a book on what I’ve learned in my nine years in Greenville . It’s been interesting, to say the least, and I have made many wonderful friends - and, I suspect, a few enemies. So be it.

The website will continue in an altered format yet to be determined, but the articles and columns from what would have been the January 23 issue will be posted in the coming days. Beyond that, stay tuned.

Thanks for your support of The Beat . We couldn’t have done it without you, and only wish we could have done it better and for a longer period of time. But hell, at least we tried.

James Shannon, Editor & Publisher

Picking a President, Palmetto Style.

Early returns were described by the Associated Press as "a rout" as Barack Obama handily defeats Hillary Clinton in the South Carolina Democratic Primary. A series of no-holds-barred attacks on Obama in the past ten days by the Clinton campaign - especially the former president - apparently have backfired.

A last-minute surge of voters to native son Sen. John Edwards turned out not to be enough to catapult him into a second place finish ahead of Clinton, but all signs point to Edwards continuing his fight for the nomination - perhaps all the way to the convention.  

In another surprising development, the Democratic voter turnout today in this reddest of red states was GREATER than the GOP turnout in the hotly-contested Republican Primary a week ago. When The Beat asked Obama last June about his strategy to win the general election should be become the nominee, he said he would win every state John Kerry won in 2004 and put a number of other states in play where Democrats had not been competitive in recent years. Surely he didn't mean South Carolina? (J.S.)

Developing...

Photo by John B. Hoffman/special to The Beat 

Native son makes a late move in South Carolina polls

For what it’s worth, pollster John Zogby invoked an old Stephen Stills lyric in an attempt to make sense of the latest trends on the eve of the Democratic presidential primary in South Carolina. “There’s something happening here,” read the Zogby press release. “What it is ain’t exactly clear.”

After edging past Hillary Clinton to finish second in Iowa, Edwards ran a weak third in New Hampshire and an even more disappointing third in Nevada where his expected redoubt crumbled. To his credit, the former North Carolina senator refused to stand down. In fact, he has sharpened his campaign focus on the plight of the middle class and infused his populist rhetoric with an increased urgency.

At the same time, both of the Clinton’s have appeared more concerned with tying a tin can to Barack Obama’s tail, forcing the Illinois senator on the defensive and spawning a week of ugly exchanges between the front-runners that threatened to create deep divisions within a Democratic Party that badly needs to be united. Edwards declined to join in the mudfest, and continued to pound his message home in a relentless barnstorming tour across the Palmetto state.

At every stop, he urged enthusiastic crowds to join him in a crusade for change that eschews Obama’s olive branch for a populist big stick. Pictured above at Lander University in Greenwood, Edwards joined hands with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley (left) and Rev. James Blassingame of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Sumter to sing “Amazing Grace” as if to signal the Almighty’s affinity for the plight of working families. Audacious? Sure, but the way the election of 2008 is shaping up, it might just be that kind of year.

The result has been a tightening of the race here with Edwards surging to the point where the latest poll numbers put him in a statistical tie with Clinton for second place. What this means is that the race for the Democratic nomination is far from decided, and a strong showing by John Edwards in his native South Carolina will make this a legitimate three-way race through Super Tuesday and beyond.

In The State newspaper today, Roddie A. Burris looked at the polling data less than 24 hours before SC Dems head to the polls.

Fasten your seat belts, boys; it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Stay tuned to The Beat as this political drama continues with no end in sight.  (J.S.)

The Clinton’s go medieval on Obama in South Carolina.

Barack Obama is not a bad guy, far from it. But his big mistake was getting in the way of the Clinton juggernaut. As the events of the past few weeks have made clear, it is Bill Clinton as much as his candidate wife who is driving this campaign bus. The significance of this not-so-surprising revelation is the probability that should Hillary become the Democratic nominee, the fall campaign will be turned into a referendum on the restoration of the Clinton presidency. Despite the profound failings of the current administration, will voters eager for change embrace a return to the past? All of Hillary’s high-minded rhetoric – rolled out by the yard like industrial carpeting – will never eclipse Bill’s close quarters political gut-fighting techniques so familiar from the past. As the race has tightened up, the tenor of the former president’s attacks has taken an ugly turn.

In a recent post on The Nation blog, William Greider describes the action: “Mr. Bill punches Obama in the kidney and from the rear. When Obama whirls around to strike back, there stands Mrs. Clinton, looking like a prim Sunday School teacher and citing goody-goody lessons she learned from her 135 years in government.”

Greider, an experienced political journalist who was assistant managing editor of the Washington Post, contributor to the PBS Frontline series and national affairs editor of Rolling Stone magazine, offers some sobering perspectives on what a Clinton restoration might portend. Meanwhile, Barack Obama (seen above at Furman University this week) continues to feel the full brunt of the Clinton attacks heading into the Democratic Primary in South Carolina this Saturday. (J.S.)

Click here to read the entire Greider post.

South Carolina takes the national stage

With the political attention of the nation focused on South Carolina this week and next, the battle for votes among Republican (Jan. 19 primary) and Democratic (Jan. 26 primary) presidential candidates grows increasingly fierce. We take a look at the candidates and their prospects in our primary preview.

Click here to read more.

Duke Power’s Proposed Nuclear Plant Raises Questions

Bread and Roses columnist Jennifer Lynne Ziemann doesn’t think much of the so-called “exploratory” process currently underway to erect a new nuclear power plant near Gaffney. The nuclear debate has been on the backburner for a while, and this discussion is something we need to have again in this country. Why not start now?

Click here to read more.