RALEIGH – The old saying about North Carolina no longer applies: we’re not a vale of humility between two mountains of conceit.

For one thing, while North Carolina used to be the kind of state where deeds mattered more than words, the kind of state that aspired “to be rather than to seem,” North Carolina is now the kind of state where clueless politicians continue to claim victory long after everyone else has read the scoreboard, accepted the loss, and gone home.

Some are still insisting, for example, that our state is an economic pacesetter and boasts a strong business climate. Well, maybe in a few suburban pockets this is true, but the state has a whole has one of the worst-performing economies in the United States at the moment – and had a sub-par recovery from the previous recession of the early 2000s. Spin can’t change reality. North Carolina has a poor climate for starting new enterprises and creating jobs.

Another example, familiar to Daily Journal readers, is North Carolina’s recent record on education reform. While our state did post sizable gains on independent reading and math tests during the early and mid-1990s, our performance since then has been mediocre at best. When it comes to academic standards, North Carolina isn’t just mediocre – it’s an embarrassment. Our education officials concocted a fake graduation rate that eventually brought us national ridicule. They so manipulated the state’s own testing program that it yielded nonsensical results and has brought us additional national ridicule.

Just last week, the National Center for Education Statistics published a new report evaluating the rigor state academic standards. South Carolina ranked near the top, North Carolina ranked near the bottom in reading and near the center in math. Just last weekend, the N&O reported that the state has, apparently unintentionally, just retroactively weakened its high-school graduation standards.

So when it comes to appearance and reality, North Carolina is more of a veil than a vale – and our signature characteristic is closer to implausibility than to humility.

Then there’s the political reputation of our state: It stinks. North Carolina’s political class is now known less for policy accomplishments than for incompetence and corruption. Eight years ago, if you asked me who the most powerful politicians in North Carolina were, you’d have gotten a list looking pretty much like this: the governor, the lieutenant governor, our two U.S. senators, the speaker of the state house, the leader of the state senate, and the other senior leadership in each legislative chamber.

Today, two of them are convicted felons. Two of them are under criminal investigation. John Edwards is a national laughingstock and under investigation. The then-lieutenant governor and now current governor is one of the most unpopular governors in the country, with approval ratings in the 20s. She is probably the most unpopular governor ever to be elected in North Carolina – the only ones who were more unpopular were imposed on us either by King George or General Sherman.

Admittedly, Gov. Easley’s alleged misdeeds don’t give him the dramatic flair of South Carolina’s Mark Sanford. None of the plane trips he accepted off-the-books from McQueen Campbell and others appear to have conveyed him to a sordid Argentine tryst. And up in Virginia, broad public dissatisfaction with state government seems likely to give the GOP another go in the governor’s seat after tomorrow’s election, so it’s not just North Carolina where the top politicians are in big trouble.

Still, our political scandals and screw-ups are undeniable – while at the same time undeniably lacking in showmanship or grandiosity. So let’s try this rewrite of the slogan:

North Carolina is a vale of humiliation between two mountains of deceit.

Somehow, I don’t see this one going on the state promotional brochures anytime soon.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation