Gov. Haley wrong on drug test information

The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier: Gov. Nikki Haley repeatedly got it wrong by saying that half of the job applicants at the Savannah River Site failed drug tests. Then she got it right by correcting that mistake. Too bad she struck the wrong tone in the error-admission process.

The governor told The Associated Press’ Jim Davenport: “I’ve never felt like I had to back up what people tell me. You assume that you’re given good information. And now I’m learning through you guys that I have to be careful before I say something.”

Yet some assumptions are more reckless than others — for instance, assuming something as far-fetched as a 50 percent drug-test failure rate by SRS job applicants is “good information.” For the record, the actual rate was less than 1 percent over the last two years.

Hey, everybody makes mistakes.

Credibility

Still, by wildly overstating that drug-test percentage, Haley undermined her credibility. It recalled her assertion that she came back from the recent Paris Air Show with two companies recruited for South Carolina, while they remain prospects.

But at least the governor was right, in the latest flap, when she said, “I have to be careful before I say something.”