Political Columnist, The State
Political Columnist for The State in Colombia, South Carolina, he's covered state politics for over 40 years
PROFILE
Lee Bandy
Guest
FROM Lee Bandy
To the Point
South Carolina Governor Turns up in Argentina South Carolina's Republican Governor made national headlines when he refused to accept federal stimulus money. Now Mark Sanford is famous for being absent without leave. Last Thursday, he disappeared without telling anyone where he was going — not Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, not his staff, not even his wife. Today he had an explanation. Lee Bandy, who's covered South Carolina politics for 40 years, is now retired from The State newspaper.
To the Point
Comebacks in New Hampshire and the Road Ahead You don't have to be a political junkie to know that Hillary Clinton and John McCain are the comeback kids of yesterday's New Hampshire primaries —even though Mc Cain points out that he's hardly a kid. Barack Obama said Iowa proved white Americans would vote for a black man. Gloria Steinem said it proved gender is harder to overcome than race. Yesterday's results in New Hampshire have prevented a lot of story lines from becoming conventional wisdom. Is Hillary Clinton the front-runner after all? Can John McCain compete against major money in big states? Will religion emerge as an underlying issue? What's up between now and Tsunami Tuesday?
To the Point
Will YouTube and Web 2.0 Change American Politics? CNN hyped last night's Democratic presidential debate at The Citadel in South Carolina as "revolutionary" because real people got to ask questions on video. Some students of politics and the media said the event would do for interactive Web 2.0 what the Kennedy-Nixon debates did for TV. Others called it just a tiny step forward, because CNN got to decide which questions the candidates had to respond to. Some 3000 thousand people submitted amateur videos that tackled everything from serious policy questions to sophomoric humor, including a question on global warming that came from an animated snowman. Did the format make for entertaining TV? Were the candidates more authentic? Did it finally come down to politics as usual?
To the Point
Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate in South Carolina Last night, on the campus of a historically black institution, South Carolina State University , all the Democratic candidates met for the first time. Results of the debate in this very Republican state, whose primary will be held fourth in next year's election process, could be a bell weather, especially for the voting patterns of African American Democrats. Each of the eight candidates got 11 minutes in total during an hour and a half of one-minute answers to questions on complex issues. For the most part, they were nice to each other, tough on President Bush and really angry about the war in Iraq. Are Clinton , Obama and Edwards still the top three? Did any "second tier" candidates distinguish themselves? We hear from across the Democratic political spectrum.
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To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
Left, Right & Center
President Trump: US to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord Trump says he was elected to serve Pittsburgh, not Paris.
To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
Venezuela spirals into economic and political chaos Venezuela, a country whose potential for prosperity is unmatched, finds itself on the verge of civil war. What sustains the repressive government? With time running out, guest host León Krauze looks at what the international community can do to pull the country from the edge of collapse.