South Carolina state employees are about to sound a little cheerier. Call up the state’s department of health, or a school, or even a prison, and you’ll soon be greeted with the phrase, “It’s a great day in South Carolina. How can I help you?” This charming initiative is the brainchild of Gov. Nikki Haley, the State reports. “As hokey as some people may think it is, I’m selling South Carolina as this great, new, positive state,” Haley says.
But not everyone’s feeling the sunshine. “She believes that if you say the lie enough, people may begin to believe it. But we know the state is in the toilet,” says the state’s Democrat Party chair, citing its 11.1% unemployment rate, the nation’s fourth-highest. Wonkette quips that if this doesn’t fix everything, “Haley will rename the state ‘The Awesomer Carolina, Bitches’ and then just hope for the best.” (More Nikki Haley stories.)