S.C. All the chips in the Republican presidential battle are on the table here in South Carolina. The wheel is spinning. And the ghost of Lee Atwater is hovering. Atwater was the first of the celebrity campaign managers. He spun his 1988 victory for George Bush into a recording contract and a couple of barbecue restaurants.
Blues guitar and barbecue.
Politics, Southern style. Republican insiders tolled a mournful reverie as Bush Sr. sleepwalked to defeat in 1992. The dirge resumed during the Bob Dole debacle of 1996. If only Lee Atwater were alive. Now, in a strange way, he is.