Ready for a Change? Vote Republican!?!

The political season never stops, but now it's really on. Here in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Republican candidate Ralph Norman is trying to unseat longtime Democratic Congressman John Spratt in the fifth district.

Early on, the national GOP gave the race a lot of attention, as they saw it as an opportunity for a seat pickup in a tough election cycle in the increasingly red suburbs of Charlotte. Dick Cheney came to town for Norman. There were Norman stickers next to Bush stickers on cars everywhere.

The Spratt campaign seemed a little late to match that sort of visibility, but has greatly increased in recent weeks. My street has a row of Spratt signs in every yard. I love Spratt's logo. It's simple and bold, it's held up remarkably over the years, and it's iconic. Spratt is enormously popular in the area. He has a reputation as a budget hawk, and as an honest populist.

The latest round of Norman signs are showing up around town, and they carry the tagline "Time for a Change." I haven't followed the race as closely lately, but I'm wondering if Norman is backing off of his heavy reliance on support from BushCo. Surely the slogan is intended to capitalize on the fact that, at the national level, most people feel that we're on the wrong track and it is indeed time for a change...

...But this is a slogan for a GOP candidate. Maybe some reverse psychology is at work. Maybe the Norman campaign hopes that people will get to the voting booth, exhausted by Iraq and everything else, feeling in the words of Newt Gingrich that they've "had enough," and vote for a GOP candidate. Well, this is South Carolina.

It's hard to imagine anyone really wanting to see John Spratt removed for anything but purely political reasons. When there's an effective politician representing the other party -- like Senator Graham in South Carolina -- I don't really see working too hard or spending much energy on getting them out. Of course, if you've got a Santorum-like wackjob or Lieberman-like mutineer in there, that's a totally different story.