two weeks later...

My, but it has been a while.

I'll go ahead and apologize in advance for any typos. I (ironically) broke my "W" key a couple of weeks ago, and while it still works, it takes some effort to use, and sometimes it gets skipped over.

So... how bout that election?

I guess to say that I was surprised about anything would be false. I knew, whether I admitted it or not, that any Republican candidate would have an uphill battle to fight this year. But I really let myself get my hopes up about the North Carolina gubernatorial race. After all of the debates, the interviews, and the endorsements, I was just sure that anyone who had been paying attention to the candidates -- not the parties -- would be voting for Pat McCrory.

I was almost right. Madeline Shoemaker, the grassroots coordinator for the McCrory campaign did the math and found out that McCrory received 1,115,861 votes from non-straight ticket voters, whereas Beverly Perdue only received 857,546. Perdue, who distanced herself as much as possible from Barack Obama during the campaign should be falling all over herself to thank him for that win.

I've always been against straight-ticket voting. This is not something that I am suddenly against this year because of this particular election. I have never voted straight-ticket, and I have never suggested that anyone vote straight-ticket. It encourages uninformed voting, which is something else that I am very much against.

There's no doubt that there was a lot of that going on during this election. Every polling place I went to had Obama workers handing out little yellow cards with instructions on "How the vote for change". Step one was to vote for Barack Obama, step two was to vote straight ticket Democrat, and step three was to vote for a list of liberal judges (as those races are "non-partisan").

Voting straight-ticket Democrat in North Carolina is NOT voting fo change at the state level. Our Democratic governors have done a great job over the years of running our state into the ground. Pat McCrory was change.

The presidential election was Obama's before he even won the primary. Whichever candidate had won the Democratic primary was going to be our next president. We can thank George W. Bush and the rest of the big-government Republicans for that one. As much as I hate to admit it when the far-right is right, the Obama victory should (theoretically) promote change in the Republican Party. The idea of another Ronald Reagan isn't that exciting, but perhaps it's time for a Barry Goldwater?

Likewise, I was going to be happy regardless of who won our Senate race. Elizabeth Dole deserved to lose. Sure, she was going to be another GOP vote in the Senate, but she was nothing more than an opportunist when it came to running in North Carolina. Kay Hagan's victory will give the NC GOP a chance to put a real North Carolinian up against her in 2014.

But Pat McCrory was a victim of bad Republicans and uninformed voting. He ran a positive campaign about the issues, and North Carolinians showed that it pays to go negative (or hire Andy Griffith). I was at the election night party in Charlotte, and aside from the actual act of conceding itself, the most heartbreaking aspect was in Pat McCrory's concession speech when he brought up his positive campaign and appeared to realize, in front of our very eyes, that perhaps refusing to run attack ads had hurt him.

I know that at times I fall back on the Republican cliche attack system (such as the "Respect your president?" sign from the last post), but in all honesty I'm not that person. There are much more important things in politics than party politics. I want North Carolina and the United States to move forward and succeed -- I would never want for things to go horribly wrong just so the person from the other party will look bad or be impeached/voted out of office. I believe that both Barack Obama and Bev Perdue have our country's best interests in mind, which is why they worked so hard to get elected. We simply have different ideas of how to move our country/state forward.

If things really are better off four years from now, I will be the first to admit it. I want to see economic growth, but not at the expense of our country's brightest minds. I will not blindly support a Republican in 2012 simply for the fact that he or she is a Republican. I will look at who I feel will continue to move our country in the right direction. If Bev Perdue is the better candidate, then she will be able to count on my support. Let's face it, if the gubernatorial election had come down to Perdue vs. Fred Smith (McCrory's major opponent in the primary), I very likely would have voted for Libertarian Mike Munger.

I will respect Barack Obama as my president, and I will respect Bev Perdue as my governor. But I will also be watching them closely to make sure that they are not taking advantage of their positions -- just as I do with any leader, regardless of their party.

And you best believe I'll be leading the revolution if ever one is necessary.

Hilarious statement from Democratic Governors Association

Nathan Daschle, the exectutive director of the Democratic Governors Association (a group that does their best to insure Democratic governors are elected across the country) did an interview with David Mixner this weekend about this most competitive gubernatorial races in the country.

According to Mr. Daschale, NC is among the top three most competitive races in the country. And how does the DGA introduce their candidate, Bev Perdue, to an outsider that knows nothing about North Carolina politics? Surely he would outline her experience, or important issues in her platform, right?

"Bev Perdue is running a positive campaign about her vision for the state of North Carolina. Her opponent, Republican Pat McCrory, is well-funded, well-organized, and receiving enormous outside support from National Republicans."

I'm sorry, it's so rude, but I snorted out loud when I read that. My cubicle neighbors appreciated that.

I have seen one -- ONE -- "positive" advertisement out of the Bev Perdue campaign in the past three months. It's the one that's currently running right now, because the polls are showing that her attacks on Pat McCrory (calling him a "real danger to the middle class") weren't going over too well. It seems the people of NC preferred the candidate that didn't sling mud in a pathetic attempt to win an election.

I would refer to this as the pot calling the kettle black, but that would infer that McCrory has participated in any of the name-calling that Perdue has attempted to rope him into, and he just hasn't. He's a lot nicer about this whole thing than I would be able to be.

"Bev Perdue.... is a person whose word you cannot trust."

Check out this video of a local talk show in Greenville, NC. Joe Mavretic, former Democratic Speaker of the NC House tells Henry Hinton why he will not be voting for Bev Perdue. Keep in mind; this is a DEMOCRAT -- you know, one of Bev's peers.



"I think that her entire political career has been based on flip-flops. Bev Perdue in my personal opinion is a person whose word you can not trust... I've watched her in the House and in the Senate, and in the Lt. Gov. slot, and I think that's an accurate description."

Props to Katy's Conservative Corner for digging up this video!

Pat McCrory speaks to the Greater Greensboro Republican Women's Club

This Sunday, Pat McCrory addressed the Greater Greensboro Republican Women's Club -- and your favorite blogger was right there, front and center, to record the speech for your viewing pleasure! Yes, I am a few days late with this post, but I had a few minor technical difficulties with my new video camera. Thanks to some help from Guilford Young Republican President Kyle Suggs (who makes a cameo at the end of the last video clip).

I've split these clips up into 2-3 minute increments, for those of you that don't feel like wading through a 13 minute speech, but I assure you, Mayor McCrory is a superb speaker, and I recommend watching all of these clips!

The first clip is Pat McCrory's introduction, and he tells a story that he often recounts when in the Greensboro/Jamestown area. It is a cute little anecdote that he tells very well, even if you have heard it five times like I have ;)



Mayor McCrory then addressed the attack ads that are currently being run by the Bev Perdue campaigns and their cronies (which I have discussed at length on this blog), and countered that perhaps it is Lt. Governor Perdue that is the real threat to North Carolina.



McCrory went on to outline his plan for public schools, which unlike any of Bev Perdue's stances, has not changed since this primaries:



And he even addressed the fact that our transportation system is broken, with all of the money for road projects going to the areas with the most powerful politicians:



Pat McCrory concluded his speech by urging everyone to not only remember to vote, but to help motivate others to vote. He reminded us that in order to win this election, we can't only rely on the Republicans, but also Independents and even Democrats. He contends that most North Carolina Democrats do not relate to the leftest agenda of Beverly Perdue, Barack Obama, and other liberal Democrats.



He's got my vote, but I guess you all probably know that by now...

"Positive Bev" hits the web

Pat McCrory is officially a threat to the Bev Perdue campaign.

How do I know? I don't have to look at polls or watch the debates, although either of those outlets would show anyone that this race is not the Democratic landslide this state is used to. No, I learned that Perdue is starting to really worry about McCrory because of a small text-only ad along the side of my Gmail account inviting me to learn "The Real McStory".

Now, I'm not going to link to this pathetic attempt at a new-age attack ad, because I don't want to give them anymore free press than I have to, but you're really not missing too much. It's little more than a bare-bones Blogspot blog masquerading as an actual website with fantastic stories about how McCrory is going to single-handedly destroy North Carolina's public school system and how -- get this -- McCrory is flip-flopping on issues like off-shore drilling!

Excuse me? Pat McCrory is a flip-flopper? This from the woman that stated she was against off-shore drilling on several occasions before then putting out a television ad saying she has been consistently FOR off-shore drilling, while failing to mention that she's only for it if it's being done in the Gulf of Mexico. But I digress.

A small square of text in the bottom right hand side of the blog tells us that everything is paid for by the North Carolina Democratic Party. Well, of course -- we can't let "Positive Bev" put her name on something that dirty.

Don't let Beverly Perdue fool you, folks. This website might not have been her idea, but she has a hand in it. She knows about it. And if she were really interested in running a clean race, she would demand that it be taken down. This is just another one of her ways of getting her slimy attacks out without actually having her name on them.

It's interesting to note that there is absolutely nothing on this site about Perdue's record. Isn't it a given that the NC Democratic Party, who posted this site and bought Google ads to spread the love, support Beverly Perdue? So why pass up an opportunity to show how great Perdue's platform is while bashing her opponents?

Could it be because her own record is less than stellar, so they have nothing else to do but attack Pat McCrory in as many media outlets as possible?

Hmmm....

Perdue supporters run false attack ads against McCrory

Watch the video, and then read the facts:



---

Hilarious, right?

Pat McCrory actually did not say that he opposed raising the minimum wage (much to my chagrin, as someone who personally opposes any kind of a government-mandated minimum wage). In fact, when asked by an anti-minimum wage group for his stance, McCrory stated that he WOULD consider raising the minimum wage, and added, "Any one-time minimum wage increase should be coupled with a tax cut to small business to help offset additional costs. I would also back an alternative such as adjusting minimum wage to the cost of living."

What? A minimum wage increase AND tax cuts? Somewhere, a Democrat's head just exploded.

And how about that part where McCrory "supports pay raises for politicians, including himself"? I'm actually dying to know where that comes from. The ad cites a Charlotte Observer article from 6/10/08, but the article says no such thing. All it actually addresses is that Republicans in the city council voted against a pay raise, while Democrats voted for it. It also lists how each member voted -- but does NOT include a vote from Mayor McCrory. Hmmmm...

The last part of the video (about McCrory opposing free community college tuition for high school graduates) is the only true part of this smear ad. Since the primaries, McCrory has opposed this socialist measure, always arguing that "The teachers aren't going to work for free. The buildings aren't free. The textbooks aren't free." That's just plain common sense. It's the taxpayers that pay for it all, and as North Carolinians, we're already some of the highest taxed citizens in the US.

In a nice twist of irony, however, Perdue has never voted to decrease the tuition in community colleges; rather, she has never failed to INCREASE the tuition.

The attack ad closes by urging viewers to call the mayor's office of the City of Charlotte. By attempting to flood the office with needless phone calls, this ad attempts to waste more of the taxpayer's money (which really only proves to us that this is backed by the Democratic Party, since they're so good at spending taxpayer money).

Now, you want to know what REALLY irks me about this ad?

Of course it only stands to reason that an anti-McCrory ad would be backed by Perdue or a Perdue supporter. But Perdue spokesman Tim Crowley has denied having anything to do with the ad.

The group that's running the advertisement is called Alliance for North Carolina, and according to the group's website, "Its purpose is to communicate independently with the citizens of North Carolina on vital public issues, including but not limited to education, economic development, health care, public safety and better government." Nicely generic, yes? Not quite. The group is receiving funds from the Democratic Governor's Association, an organization whose main objective is to help elect Democratic governors across the US.

What does that ultimately mean? That sweetheart Bev can play innocent all she wants, but these are her people that are running this ad. But I know it'll be a cold day in hell when she calls for the removal of this attack ad (and the many others that will follow), because this makes it so much easier for her to pretend to run a "positive" campaign while still falsely smearing McCrory.

Too bad Bev's not any better at debating, or she wouldn't need to rely on such sleazy methods to insure a victory in November. I would hope that the North Carolina voters are too smart to fall for her shenanigans, but they sure fell for her BS in the race against Richard Moore.

McCrory: When it comes to public safety, where has Perdue been for the past eight years?

New Bern, N.C. – Mayor Pat McCrory, the Republican nominee for governor, today presented his plan to improve public safety and reform North Carolina’s criminal justice system at the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association Conference in New Bern. He highlighted many key differences between his record of effective executive leadership and the lieutenant governor’s record of supporting a failed status quo for the past eight years.

“When it comes to fighting crime, I’ve been on the front lines for the past 12 years while the lieutenant governor has turned a blind eye to the problems,” said McCrory. “I’ve seen county jails overflowing with people sleeping on floors, gangs infiltrating our schools and illegal aliens filling our jails. I’ve seen our state judges and district attorneys work out of cardboard boxes and I’ve seen our state mental health patients transferred to local jails. When I led a bipartisan group of mayors and law enforcement officials to Raleigh to work on solutions to these problems, the lieutenant governor was nowhere to be seen. Now she’s ‘forming a plan’ that’s ‘emerging and changing’ that calls for another government commission to meet in Raleigh and talk about the problems. Where has Lt. Gov. Perdue been for the past eight years?

“Now that she is campaigning for governor, Perdue is drafting a plan that should have been written eight years ago. North Carolina needs a governor who cares about public safety even when it’s not an election year. We need action and effective executive leadership.”

As Mayor of Charlotte, McCrory responded to an inadequate state criminal justice system by:

• Hiring hundreds of new police officers;
• Opening a local crime lab because the state lab couldn’t handle workload; and
• Transferring local funds to state district attorneys.

McCrory defined his vision for improving public safety if elected governor by saying he will work to:

• Increase salaries for judges and district attorneys;
• Lobby for an immigration court and detention centers for juveniles;
• Build a bigger and better crime lab;
• Pass anti-gang legislation with stronger penalties;
• Provide more flexibility for local administrators of courts;
• Build more prisons;
• Reform mental health program so we don’t have overflow patients going to local jails; and
• Lift the death penalty moratorium.

because it's not snooping when a Democrat does it

Well, Bev Perdue has proven once again that she can't run a clean race to save her life.

It seems our illustrious lieutenant governor sent a mole to a Pat McCrory fundraiser last night in Sanford, North Carolina. Will Matthews, a Duke University student and "Strategy Statistics Analyst" for Bev Perdue attended the event with the one tool a sneaky "statistics analyst" should never be without -- a tape recorder. Matthews also made a contribution of $50 to the McCrory campaign, stating on the check that the payment was for "The future of America".

The campaign appears to be taking this pretty well. Campaign manager Richard Hudson looks on the bright side of the issue in a statement released this afternoon: "“Mr. Matthews has clearly seen the light as indicated in the $50.00 contribution he made at the Sanford fundraiser, noting on his check that the contribution was ‘for the future of North Carolina. I am giving this young man the benefit of the doubt. Surely he wasn’t engaging in campaign dirty tricks when he attended our fundraiser with a tape recorder."

Come on, Bev. This is so... so.... 1972.

Now I'm REALLY sad that I missed it!

Pat McCrory revs up crowd at Take Back Our State rally

Before speaking, McCrory played a drum set for about a minute while Dallas Woodhouse, N.C. director of the anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity, sang the song “We Will Rock You” by Queen.

“I got kicked out of ninth-grade band because I'm a bad drummer,” McCrory said afterward.

That is simply awesome.

I have to confess that I knew about the Take Back Our State rally in advance, but was unable to attend.  Truth is, I scheduled it in my old phone, which has since died, and I wasn't reminded about it until this past weekend, and it was just too late for me to justify take the time off work to drive to Raleigh.

I know that's a sad excuse, but trust me, I really regret not going.  Aside from Pat McCrory, other speakers that I would have killed to see included Bob Dole and Michael Steele.

I attended the state Republican Convention a few weeks ago, and I have a great video of McCrory that I wanted to post that Sunday, but my computer ate half of it.  No worries though, I still have it on my camera, and I'm in the process of uploading and editing it AGAIN.  The convention was fun, I helped man the McCrory booth for a while, hung around the Fair Tax booth for a bit, and went to a wine tasting sponsored by a judicial candidate.  I TOLD you Republicans know how to party.

Funniest part was that a group of Democrats ACTUALLY protested the convention!  It was a small, sad little group of college-aged kids holding Kay Hagan signs and placards with witty sayings such as "Send Elizabeth Dole back to Kansas!"  I heard that later on, someone dressed up like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz came out.  They didn't last long, because it got up into the 90's, and I guess protesters just aren't as hardcore as they used to be.  For those of you that don't know, Kay Hagan is running against incumbent Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.  The really sad part about it all is that Hagan is a woman and very moderate, giving her a very good chance against Dole (especially in what is likely to be a Democratic year nationally) -- but if she keeps nutbags like these protesters around her, she's going to scare off the potential crossover votes from the Republicans and the Independents.

I guess I got off track, but I did have one more thing to comment on in that original article that I posted:


N.C. Democratic Chairman Jerry Meek on Wednesday criticized McCrory's record on taxes, citing a report in January from the conservative John Locke Foundation that said Charlotte had the highest per capita local tax burden in the state for seven straight years.

“Now McCrory wants to be a fiscal conservative,” Meek said in a statement.

Now, I'm aware that the Democrats had their own primary to worry about while McCrory was winning the Republican nomination, but do I REALLY have to go through all of that crap again?  Newsflash to Mr. Meeks:  MCCRORY VETOED THE TAX INCREASES.  It was the Democrats that overrode the vetoes to help raise taxes on the citizens of Charlotte.  Try looking in a mirror next time.

And what's more, why on earth does the head of the Democratic Party care about Charlotte having high taxes?  No matter how high Charlotte's taxes are, Jerry Meeks, Bev Perdue, and the rest of the Democratic elites would like to see it raise higher.  After all, there are a lot of "evil rich people" in Charlotte, and we need to spread that wealth around.  It simply isn't fair to those in NC that don't have or make as much as them!