Alvin Greene's first speech: Is S.C.'s implausible candidate a 'political genius'?

last updated 8 January 2015

Alvin Greene, the surprise — some would say boggling — Democratic nominee for South Carolina's senate seat, gave his first campaign speech at a NAACP chapter meeting, outlining his themes of jobs, education and justice. After his unlikely victory in June's Democratic primary (defeating opponent Vic Rawl without holding a single campaign event or soliciting any donations), the 32-year-old, unemployed military veteran became so notorious for his halting, semi-coherent media interviews that senior state Democrats even accused Greene of being a Republican plant. He's since been cleared of any wrongdoing or deception and this speech seems to reveal new confidence. Although Greene "occasionally fidgeted [and] wiped his brow," says Jeffrey Collins at the Associated Press, the "mostly serious" speech showed little of the awkwardness that marked his media appearances in June. "Had Greene made this speech at the outset no one would have given him a second thought," says Glynnis MacNicol in Mediaite. Then again, those terrible June interviews got this stump speech national coverage, so "some might call that political genius." Watch Greene speak: