By Bob Gaydos

     Staying in the game, Jimmy Cannon style.

Darline Graham
… a familiar name

• Maybe it’s just me, but: When you’re running for the United States Senate and you’re debating an opponent, it’s probably not smart or wise or politically astute to say, “I’m not that informed on national security.” Or to say at a subsequent debate on universal healthcare that you don’t support such ”woke” ideas because your parents, “if they were sick, they had to get up and go to work.” Both her parents died relatively young, as her now deceased brother, Lindsey, wrote about in his memoir. Yes, we’re talking about Darline Graham, who apparently dropped her married last name, Nordone, when Donald Trump decided she should get her brother’s vacant seat in the Senate, representing South Carolina. Just because name recognition is more important than job qualifications to him. The governor complied and appointed her. Now, she’s in a runoff with a congressman to decide the Republican candidate in November.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: I can’t decide who’s dumber, Darline or the Republican voters who let an admittedly unqualified Senate candidate get as far as a runoff.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: As long as we’re stuck in South Carolina, I wonder why voters, specifically Republican voters, would cast ballots for an obviously unqualified candidate for the U.S. Senate simply because she’s the sister of the now-deceased senator from their state when, on her brother’s watch, the state recently ranked: 41st out of 50 for the percentage of families living in poverty; 46th in infant and child mortality rates; 42nd in overall life expectancy; 42nd for overall physical health; 46th for overall safety; 41st in violent crimes per capita; 42nd for overall education quality; 35th for general economic opportunity; 36th in average years of school completed; 45th in affordability; 32nd in unemployment rate; 44th in citizenship and democracy; 37th in productivity; 39th in health and safety and, according to one survey, was the ninth worst state in the union in which to raise a family and, in another survey, conducted by Tulane University, ranked 42nd out of 50 states overall? Nice job, Lindsey.
• Maybe it’s just me, but: Lake America? Really? Couldn’t Natalie keep Trump away from his Sharpie when the Canadians told him to buzz off? Where were the orderlies?
• Maybe it’s just me, but: Isn’t Ted Cruz even slightly annoyed or embarrassed at the way Trump is dealing with the country in which the senator from Texas was born? I know Cruz, whose mother is American, renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014 to prepare for his run for president of the United States in 2016, but still, it’s his father’s homeland and the Canadians were nice enough to accept his renunciation after 44 years of his enjoying it so Trump (who beat him anyway) couldn’t question his birth certificate, a la Obama. Maybe it’s like dumping your husband’s (and until recently your) last name to run for the Senate. Very convenient.  And very Republican.

 By Bob Gaydos

Darline Nordone is looking to fill her late brother Lindsey’s seat in the Senate.

   Some lessons last longer than others. My first job with a daily newspaper was with The Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y. I was the police reporter.

   David Bernstein was editor, publisher and owner. He wrote the editorials, too. A terrific writer. People loved or hated his editorials.

    One of the rules he had in writing about people’s deaths, in stories or obituaries, was never to use the word “suddenly” in describing the person’s death. Everyone dies “suddenly,” he explained. You’re here one minute and poof, you’re gone the next. He didn’t use the word “poof.”

    However, people do die “unexpectedly,” went the logic. Seemingly healthy people with no major health issues often die unexpectedly. Others react with surprise, sadness or other emotions.

    Such was the case when Lindsey Graham died at 71 on Saturday, July 11. The Sunday morning social media sites were awash in reports of his “sudden” death. The New York Times followed Bernstein’s rule. Graham died “unexpectedly” in their stories.

    Suddenly, Donald Trump had lost one of his primary fan boys in Congress and Republicans, with Mitch McConnell still somewhere between sudden death and who knows, were close to losing their slight edge in the Senate.

   South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced, two days after Graham’s death, that a special Republican primary election would be held Aug. 11, to take Graham’s place on the November ballot. He also said, unexpectedly, that he would temporarily appoint Lindsey’s younger sister, Darline Graham Nordone, to finish her brother’s term.

    A day later, Ms. Nordone, who has no apparent political experience, unexpectedly announced that she would run in that special election in an effort to keep her brother’s name and work alive in the Senate.

    Suddenly, South Carolinians are faced with the prospect of a novice politician replacing a four-term senator in Congress and Trump, who encouraged Ms. Nordone to run for the office in her late brother’s place, sees an unexpected opportunity to try to groom yet another woman from a conservative family in a conservative state in the Deep South to come to Washington to carry his laundry.

    Suddenly, Graham’s unexpected demise doesn’t have the same resonance.

                                         ***

    I expect David Bernstein, as liberal as they came, would have approved of this column. I also suspect that Mr. Bernstein borrowed his rule from The New York Times.