Don't panic: we still have biscuits.

• Author: Otterbourg, Ken
• Position: Point Taken

After another auto plant rejection, it's tempting to go the way of South Carolina with more groveling and fat tax breaks. Instead, lets focus on our state's many strengths

The other day, I drove down to the Bojangles' at the bottom of the hill and got an egg-and-cheese biscuit and some tea. The biscuit was hot and the tea was cold. The caffeine and the fat and the sugar created a pleasant samba in my brain that made it easier for me to push the dietary buzzkill of my last physical to the back of my mind, where--quite frankly--it belonged. Instead, I thought about how Bojangles' recent initial public offering burst out of the trading gate and about all the people getting wealthy. It proved that fat and happy do go together, and when I was finished with my biscuit, wondering what the profit margin was on the delicious side of Bo-tato Rounds I ordered for the road, I was no longer upset that North Carolina had once again failed to land an auto factory.

This time it was Volvo, announcing plans for an assembly factory near Charleston, S.C., and the hand-wringing and finger-pointing about what might have been is by turns funny, strange and instructive.

I am old enough to remember a time when Volvo was less a car or even a prized economic windfall. Instead, it was basically part of a compound adjective, attached by a hyphen to the word "driving" and often preceding the word "liberal." Times have changed. A recession will do that. A Chinese billionaire now controls the Swedish company, and the boxy, slightly socialist Volvo wagon of my once carefree, younger self is all but gone. It's like a Woodstock poster: merely a harmless reminder of days that have long past.

Volvo's rejection follows a familiar pattern, one that's been going on for more than two decades. First BMW picked Greer, S.C., over North Carolina in 1992. A year later, Mercedes-Benz picked Tuscaloosa, Ala. Earlier this year, the German automaker picked Atlanta over North Carolina as the home for its new North American headquarters, then chose the Charleston, S.C., area as the site of a new van plant. There are Toyota and Nissan plants in Mississippi. Kia is in Georgia.

Take it from somebody who knows a thing or two about getting turned down. Rejection hurts. You can wash down the pain with some tea and keep Bojangles' share price moving north. But the truth is, you can only drink so much of the stuff before your teeth start hurting. At some point, you have to take stock and either...