South Carolina’s Governor Nikki Haley was given the traditionally thankless task of delivering the official GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union Tuesday night. By most accounts she delivered — or at least survived without any gaffes that will haunt her the rest of her political career. (Thirsty, Sen. Rubio?)

Gov. Haley opened with a gracious note about Obama, saying the President “spoke eloquently about grand things. He’s at his best when he does that.” But then she added, “Unfortunately, his record often falls short of his soaring words.” She delivered a second shot, saying “this president seems unwilling or unable to deal” with terrorism.

The nation needs a new direction, Haley said, and she wasn’t exempting the GOP for the mess in Washington. “We Republicans need to own that truth,” she said. “And then we need to fix it.”

Haley shared her story, describing herself as “the proud daughter of Indian immigrants who reminded my brothers, my sister and me every day how blessed we were to live in this country.” Growing up in the rural south, her family looked different from the others in her neighborhood, she noted. What came next the mainstream media characterized as a criticism of Donald Trump and perhaps some others in the GOP field as well. “During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices,” Haley said, “We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.”

The mainstream media may have had less to say about where she went next:

At the same time, that does not mean we just flat out open our borders. We can’t do that. We cannot continue to allow immigrants to come here illegally. And in this age of terrorism, we must not let in refugees whose intentions cannot be determined.

We must fix our broken immigration system. That means stopping illegal immigration.

Then Gov. Haley spoke of last year’s Charleston church massacre. It bears quoting at length:

This past summer, South Carolina was dealt a tragic blow. On an otherwise ordinary Wednesday evening in June, at the historic Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, twelve faithful men and women, young and old, went to Bible study.

That night, someone new joined them. He didn’t look like them, didn’t act like them, didn’t sound like them. They didn’t throw him out. They didn’t call the police. Instead, they pulled up a chair and prayed with him. For an hour.

We lost nine incredible souls that night.

What happened after the tragedy is worth pausing to think about.

Our state was struck with shock, pain, and fear. But our people would not allow hate to win. We didn’t have violence, we had vigils. We didn’t have riots, we had hugs.

We didn’t turn against each other’s race or religion. We turned toward God, and to the values that have long made our country the freest and greatest in the world.

We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us, and we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him.

She said the experience provided an important lesson. In many parts of America today, “there’s a tendency to falsely equate noise with results. … That’s not true. Often, the best thing we can do is turn down the volume. When the sound is quieter, you can actually hear what someone else is saying. And that can make a world of difference.”

The full text of Gov. Nikki Haley’s GOP Response to President Obama’s State of the Union address is here.

Bentley provided a fun break during speech prep! #Bentley #FirstDog #SOTU pic.twitter.com/Dtqr6qeIjp

— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) January 12, 2016