Can't Is Not an Option: My American Story

The daughter of Sikhs who immigrated to the States from India in the late 1960s, Haley grew up in small-town Bamberg, S.C. Though she asserts it's "a different place" today, Haley recalls being discriminated against: competing as a child in a Wee Miss Bamberg pageant, which gave prizes for a black queen and a white queen, she and her sister were given beach balls as consolation prizes, as there was no crown for Indian girls. However, her remarkable life is proof that she and the state have overcome their once tenuous relationship. She graduated from Clemson in the 1990s and began her political career shortly thereafter, mounting a successful underdog campaign that ended in the South Carolina House of Representatives. When Haley decided to run for governor, she earned the endorsements of Sarah Palin and the (deposed) governor's wife, Jenny Sanford, and she doesn't hesitate to invoke God's role in her election as well. An avowed advocate of the Tea Party, Haley insists that she and the party are a natural fit because "they understand the importance of putting principles before politics." Along the way she's learned that "Winners do what losers don't want to do." Haley's book details her impressive progress, but unfortunately reflects today's political practice of hurling criticism at one's opponents early and often. (Jan.)