Now I'm CERTAIN It's Something In The Water

Ahhh, South Carolina: the South's wellspring of crazy, the state that's giving Cleveland and New Jersey a run for their money as the butt of jokes nationwide, the state that made the phrase "hiking the Appalachian Trail" (in)famous. Home to such lunatic politicians as Mark "the Luv Gov" Sanford and Jim "It Will Be His Waterloo" DeMint, South Carolina has done it again.

Presenting for your amusement and edification: Alvin Greene, South Carolina's Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate. An unemployed Army veteran, an unknown who won the South Carolina primary with no previous experience as an elected official at any level of government, no campaign staff, no lawn signs, buttons, advertising, or websites, no public appearances prior to the election, and, apparently, no desire or ability to explain any of this to the national media. The inarticulate candidate whose malapropisms and painful-to-watch interviews have placed him in a three-way tie for the title of worst-spoken politician in the country, and led to speculation that he's either mentally impaired or the next Sarah Palin. The man who's currently facing felony charges in South Carolina, charged with "showing obscene Internet photos to a University of South Carolina student." The man who tried to pay the $10,400 filing fee for the election with a personal check. The challenger to Jim DeMint for the Senate, whose story has become more bizarre with every passing day.

TPM:

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) has suggested that the no-name candidate who won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday is a plant."

"There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary," Clyburn said on the liberal Bill Press radio show. "I don't know if he was a Republican plant; he was someone's plant.

[...]

The South Carolina Democratic Party asked Greene to withdraw yesterday, after reports surfaced that he had a pending felony charge.

And Greene won by over 100,000 votes! This is the best that South Carolina has to offer? In every interview I've heard with him, Greene looks, sounds, and acts like a man afflicted with both low intelligence and some sort of mental deficiency. Greene is not only unwilling to answer the media's questions, but seems incapable of doing so. Calling him "unpolished" would be an a compliment; I've seen street beggars with better presence and diction. Here's CNN's Don Lemon interviewing Greene. Lemon is right, the interview is extremely bizarre:



This guy makes Sarah Palin look intelligent and well-informed. If Greene isn't a Republican plant, then he's just one more piece of evidence that the crazy juice is flowing freely in South Carolina.