Myrtle Beach Mayor Mark McBride, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has more experience in government than John Edwards had when he ran for the Senate in North Carolina six years ago. McBride is attractive and personable, helpful qualities in one who aspires to national office.

But does the mayor have the right stuff to actually be a U.S. senator? We're beginning to have our doubts.

Thus far, the gentleman has grounded his campaign in inflammatory opinions aimed at distinguishing him from the four other candidates with whom he'll appear on the June 8 Republican senatorial primary ballot. Last week, he moved into attack mode with a campaign e-mail against former Gov. David Beasley, the perceived front-runner for the GOP nomination to replace retiring Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, D-S.C.

The piece shows Beasley accepting the 2003 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for Beasley's 1996 effort to remove the Confederate battle flag from the dome of the S.C. Statehouse. U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, who bestows the awards annually, also is in the picture.

Labeled "McBride's favorite picture of Beasley," the piece quotes McBride campaign manager Brett Perry as saying, "I suppose it shouldn't be surprising to see David looking so comfortable accepting an award from Ted Kennedy; after all, he used to be a Democrat himself."

Funny stuff. OK, not really. But it's fair game to use perceived unfavorable association to dull the luster of an opponent's image. If there's anything wrong with it, it's that McBride has associated himself with opposition to the battle flag from the dome to the Statehouse lawn. Is that where he really wants to be?

But let that go for now. What worries us about our favorite son is his ongoing unwillingness - inability? - to offer S.C. voters substantial, reasonable solutions to the nation's problems.

Visit his Web site, www.markmcbride.us, and you'll see what we mean. He thinks the government should protect American jobs, no matter what the cost. He would shut down the U.S. Department of Education. He supports the Second Amendment. He thinks marriage is a holy union between a man and a woman. He thinks abortion is wrong. He wants the estimated 10 million illegal immigrants in the United States to be deported. He wants "meaningful" tort reform. And so on.

Many voters share these beliefs. But how would he implement them if the voters send him to the Senate?

Take, for example, the U.S. Department of Education. In the 2001 No Child Left Behind legislation, President Bush and Congress increased federal spending on public schools and beefed up the role of the Education Department in local schools. Could McBride successfully defy a president who takes great pride in that legislation to roll back the law and abolish the department? This is tilting at windmills.

Another example: Bush wants to legitimize Latino illegal immigrants, and many in Congress agree, yet McBride proposes to send all of them home. How on Earth would he accomplish that?

It would be great for Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand if a favorite son did well in a statewide U.S. Senate primary, maybe even won. But unless and until McBride moves beyond sloganeering - and Teddy bashing - to mount a real campaign, his chances of doing us proud seem minuscule.

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