Source AOL News: Today, Republican Nikki Haley was sworn in as governor of South Carolina, becoming the first woman to hold that position in the state, and the second Indian-American governor to be elected governor in the country (Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal was the first).
Haley is a favorite of the Tea Party movement, and she returned the affection in her inaugural speech:
Our state has an incredibly powerful and rich history. It is one that has not always been pleasant, but one that can teach us many great lessons.
We have a history of fierce independence, and that independence has some remarkable relevance for us today. While in 1773 it was the Tea Party in Boston that became famous, there was also a whole lot of tea dumped in the Charleston harbor that December. We declared independence from Great Britain some four months before Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia. And at Kings Mountain just over our northern border, our local militia – not professional soldiers – helped turn the tide of the Revolutionary War that brought us the freedom we still enjoy to this day.
Let’s see: tax protests, tea parties, the grassroots beating the professionals – it does have a certain familiar ring to it.
Haley also addressed current economic realities, saying she would resist raising taxes and planned to cut state spending in an effort to revive South Carolina’s nearly $1 billion budget shortfall. She also took a swipe at the federal government for what she sees as a burden passed on to her state:
Nearly two years ago, the federal government in Washington decided to transfer its irresponsible fiscal practices to the states. And our state, like every other, accepted it. When we produce this year’s budget, we will see the heavy price we pay for having done so.
Conservatives like Moe Lane at RedState.com cheered Haley and her historic inauguration. “We at RedState have been waiting for this moment for quite some time,” Lane wrote. South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham said Haley’s speech “set the right tone.”
As for Haley’s future, there are already rumors about what might happen by the time 2012 rolls around. Last summer, a GOP insider remarked, “She could be what Sarah Palin was supposed to be.”
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