McCrory and Perdue on illegal immigration and mental health

McCrory is talking about his 287G program which catches illegal immigrants who are committing other crimes and gets them out of here. He says one of his first duties as governor will be to get an illegal immigrant detention center in NC -- the closest one now is in Atlanta, and it's a joke to try to get illegals in NC over there.

Perdue states "The immigration system is broken." REALLY, Bev? Ya think? She thinks the feds need to fix it, "like, yesterday". She also states that she's going to focus her power in NC on getting undocumented workers out of here. And now she's repeating herself over and over. Zzzzzzz....

Now they have a question on the mental health care system in NC. She's talking about how all aspects of the mental health system need work -- which, as McCrory pointed out earlier, is thanks to her administration's incompetence. And she wants to model the mental health care system after Medicaid, because THAT works to well.

McCrory is rightly pointing out that the current administration is who has ruined the mental health system. He thinks we need to encourage the school to graduate more mental health care workers. The few resources that we have are not well-staffed.

McCrory and Perdue on offshore drilling

Bev Perdue supports off-shore drilling IMMEDIATELY now! Wow, this woman is all over the place. She thinks all coasts in America should be open to drilling IF CONGRESS DEEMS IT SO (key words there) and she thinks each state should have the OPTION to drill off their own coast.

Pat McCrory says he STILL doesn't know where she stands on the off-shore drilling issue. He has never changed his position on the issue, he is still a strong advocate FOR off-shore drilling, and he feels it will also improve out national security. We shouldn't be dependent on the Middle East. He just pointed out that Perdue only wants to drill in Gulf of Mexico (which she has alluded to) and she CACKLED at him. It was very classy. Perdue has said she is 100% opposed to offshore drilling, and that is probably still her position, but we really can't be sure.

McCrory, (who has worked for Duke Power), just told the audience that you ALWAYS have someone make sure a building project is safe before going through with it, and this will be true with offshore drilling. However, it has been successful along Gulf of Mexico, and it can be successful here.

Perdue is AGAIN saying she supports offshore drilling -- however, she doesn't think it's safe to drill until a team of engineers tells her it's okay to do so.

Isn't that what Pat just said?

McCrory and Perdue on health care

A viewer question just came in on how people are expected to pay for healthcare and prescriptions. McCrory thinks that we have a lot of mandates in NC regarding health care, and therefore younger people are not signing up for health care. There's also the fear of lawsuits from trial attorneys which is raising the COST of health care. McCrory thinks it would help to give tax breaks to small businesses so they can help pay for health care for workers.

Perdue apparently thinks she has solved the prescription drug problem, we're supposed to go to her website to check it out (apparently she doesn't remember it right now). She just accused McCrory of not wanting children to be insured. She wants to insure health care for children. It's the "bottom line" to having a working economy in NC. The moderator just asked what the differences are in their health care policies. Perdue says that her no-smoking and anti-obesity campaigns in NC are a huge step forward, and she again is accusing McCrory of not wanting health care for children. This woman is like a one-act pony.

McCrory gets a rebuttal, and he just informed everyone that Perdue took his quote out of context, AS USUAL. He just pointed out, and rightly so, that Perdue comes from the administration that has destroyed NC's health care system. People are waiting 70 hours to get a mental health care bed, Dorthea Dix is going to have to close, the Easley administration is not taking responsibility for the mistakes they've made in healthcare

McCrory on Energy

Well, thanks to the technical geniuses at Lounge 101, I've already missed the opening statements. Not that we really missed too much on Bev Perdue.

We've had some trouble with the TV signal, but the debate is back on and McCrory is talking about creating jobs. Surprise, surprise, he wants us to get into the energy business and do some off-shore drilling... and the whole room just burst into applause! That's what I'm talking about :)

Debate blogging

Alright guys, here's the deal -- unless you live in the Raleigh/Durham area, you're probably not seeing the NC gubernatorial debate tonight. That's why I'm here.

I'm blogging live from Lounge 101 in downtown Raleigh, and I'm here to tell you all you need to know about the debate. Go Pat!

Hillary cries, Bev whines -- how the modern female runs for office

Let me you what ticks me off about Bev Perdue.

Oh, I'm sorry, my lunch break is only an hour long. I'll have to limit myself to one topic.

During the primaries, Perdue started an all out war against Richard Moore. That's right -- SHE started it. I watch the local news every morning while getting ready for work, and although I'm usually too tired to speak for at least 3 hours, seeing that first Perdue attack ad made me whistle in disbelief. It was harsh, and I remember wondering why a Democrat would do that to another Democrat during an election year.

Richard Moore came back with an ad defending himself, and pointing out Bev's inadequacies. This back and forth went on for some time (not being a registered Democrat, I didn't really have a dog in the fight, so I can't tell you exact figures), and Perdue and Moore remained fairly equal in local polls.

Then Bev announced that she was done with the bickering. She wanted to run a "positive campaign". She made it look like Moore had forced her to defend herself, which is the only reason she was running the ads, even thought she started it all. And almost overnight, her numbers skyrocketed. I was shocked and appalled that North Carolinians could be so naive.

A week prior to the primaries, an extremely conservative friend expressed disappointment at the fact that he could not vote in the Democratic primaries so he could vote AGAINST Moore. When I asked why on earth he would want to do such a thing, especially since Moore is a moderate Democrat (and Perdue is a socialist), he informed me that Moore attacked Perdue, and "a gentleman does not do that". I asked if he was aware that Perdue had started the fight, and he told me that he was not aware, but it did not matter to him.

So, basically, North Carolinians voted for Bev Perdue because Richard Moore treated her like a opponent rather than a housewife. You know, as a woman, I don't think I'd like to win on those grounds. I would rather be seen as an equal.

Not Perdue, and she's already playing the poor pitiful woman against Pat McCrory. As you all know, the Alliance for North Carolina has been running an attack ad against Pat McCrory for the past couple weeks. While Perdue is claiming she has nothing to do with them, she has also failed to insure a "positive" race by asking that the Alliance for NC have the ads removed. So this week, the McCrory campaign released an ad defending himself from the current attack ads, and also pointing out that Perdue is against offshore drilling in North Carolina, while he expects it to happpen "under [his] watch" as governor.

The same day the McCrory ad was released, Perdue sent an email out to her supporters with the subject line "McCrory Launches Desperate Negative Ads". The email began:

McCrory’s First Ad: Negative and Untrue

Pat McCrory launched a desperate negative attack today in his first TV commercial of the general election – an ad that is simply untrue.

The email then went on to tell us how much Bev Perdue WANTS to allow offshore drilling! Really, Bev? That is so interesting. Then why is it that on June 18, 2008, you told WRAL that you were "100% opposed" to offshore drilling? And then, on July 19th, you told the Charlotte Observer: "On my watch, we'll never solve the gas problem by drilling off the coast of North Carolina."

NOW, according to her email, Bev has "consistently said she supports offshore drilling."

Ignoring her major flipflop on the issue, isn't it interesting how McCrory is being "desperate" and "negative"? She knows what she's doing. She knows that the old Southern gentlemen who are likely to vote Republican this year would not approve of a male candidate "attacking" his opponent when she just so happens to belong to the weaker sex.

"Oh please help me, ya'll, this mean man is pointing out my inconsistencies. I just can't be expected to be held accountable for what I say!"

Please.

Bev, if you want to see a "negative", "desperate", and "untrue" "attack ad", check out the one that's being run by the Alliance for North Carolina -- an ad that you'll never ask to have removed because it does your dirty work for you. You'll never run a "positive campaign" until you start to take some responsibility.

Alliance for NC's spokesman has shady past

News broke today that Scott Falmlen, spokesman for the Alliance for North Carolina and previous Executive Director of the Florida Democrat Party and North Carolina Democrat Party has a history of being less than truthful when it comes to getting his message across.

You remember the Alliance for North Carolina -- you know, the political group that's running that ridiculous attack ad against Pat McCrory? It seems that while they and their tactics may not be well known in NC, their spokesman is getting a bit of a reputation for engaging in dirty politics.

Apparently, Scott Falmlen got himself into a little mess back in 1994 while desperately trying to get Democrat Lawton Chiles re-elected as governor of Florida. The campaign has been accused of phoning elderly citizens and scaring them into believing that Jeb Bush (the Republican nominee) was going to get rid of Medicare and Social Security.

According to The Ledger, a Florida newspaper, Falmlen "admitted making 'purposeful misstatements.'" (Dec. 9, 1995) And the vice chair of the state party at the time, Jon Ausman, was quoted as saying "Scott Falmlen should resign. He should have resigned a long time ago. He's no longer a credible spokesman for our party."

So basically, what we have here is a guy that got run out of Florida for engaging in shady politics, and has come up here to do some more of the same. The game's changed -- he's gone from sending misleading phone calls to running misleading advertisements against Pat McCrory -- but it's still the same old crap.

This is why so many people are fed up with politics in general. When people like Scott Falmlen get involved in a race, it's nothing but dirty campaigning all the way. I'm so glad Pat McCrory hasn't stooped to their level. I think it will be refreshing to a lot of North Carolinians to see a politician that doesn't feel the need to fire back with untruthful comments about his opponent.

Bev Perdue would be wise to tell the group to back off. I know she's claiming innocence with the whole thing, but it she really wanted to stay "Positive Bev", she would call for the removal of the attack ads. Plain and simple, she doesn't WANT the ad removed. She's sworn herself to positivity, so she has to get someone to do her dirty work for her. And Scott Falmlen has just the right kind of experience for Bev Perdue.