A Positive Campaign

If the Moore campaign wants to go public and pledge to go positive, then we'll promote that story too.

Thanks, Bev.....cause you two were getting to be too much. You two have been in this game long enough to know that you can't reach voters who are tuning you out. We'll see who reaches more voters here in the end.

I for one am happy to see this. In the virtual debate here at BlueNC and throughout the blogosphere, there have been many calls and requests for positive campaigns. It's very encouraging to see Lieutenant Governor Perdue listening and responding. Thanks to everyone responsible for this new direction - the campaign, the candidate and especially average citizens.

Very welcome news. I believe this would be what we'd call "Leadership", and it's a quality I will be thrilled to vote for on May 6. Thank you, Lt. Gov. Perdue.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - Harry Truman

Here.

At a press conference at Democratic Party headquarters, Perdue said that she changed her mind after being approached by voters, her husband and her son, Emmett and Garrett. She said that some of her political consultants disagreed with the decision.

"Saul Schorr is probably somewhere crying," she said, jokingly, of her media consultant. "He had to throw away the knifes and the guns, and it's not a happy day for him."

Voters. That would be us.

I too am glad to hear this. Thanks for stopping in to blog about this.

www.MoBetterChange.blogspot.com

Thank you Ms. Perdue for listening and reacting to your constituents!

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.

Progressive Discussions

I hope Richard Moore makes the same decision.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors

Actually, Jay Reiff responds. He seem to be realizing he got outflanked on this one, which of course means he goes negative, which is his default mode.

The fact is, Reiff decided early on that going negative was the only way to beat Perdue and there's little chance he'll change course now. He decided that the blogosphere in North Carolina is irrelevant as well. I appreciate Moore participating in the BlueNC discussion, but beyond the one hour he was here, I've seen neither hide nor hair from anyone related to their campaign in more than a year.

Who knows? Reiff may be right. Blowing off progressive bloggers might be a smart thing to do. Continuing to slime Perdue with criticism that have only a passing relationship to the truth, well, that might work too.

If Moore somehow manages to pull off a primary victory next month, I'll end up voting for him in the general. But I won't feel very good about it.

First, I am happy to see Perdue make this step and hope Moore does the same.

Second, to gray318, I have been around here a while, and I can tell you that you are way off, imo.

Everyone here is free to chime in for whoever they support, and against who they do not. Whether a Moore supporter or a Perdue supporter, Hillary or Obama, etc, at the end of the day the goal is electing the best candidate to promote progressive values in NC and the country.

This is true even if it means railing against the Democratic party, on the local, state, and national level, should they stray from progressive issues.

Finally, I think this is truly one of the the most truly user-driven blogs out there. Your argument seems to be that this is not true because (gasp!) James, Betsy, et al actually have and share their opinions. Egad!

Anyway, I'll let ya'll have it at. Just wanted to throw in my two cents.

Your negative ads already convinced me to vote for Richard Moore. If you were really sincere about running a positive campaign, why wait until 3 weeks before the primary?

... whether this isn't a bit like taking the lead out of your gloves in the fifteenth round and claiming to be the fairer fighter?

I mean, she's been throwing haymakers with leadlined gloves for months. So has he. So Lt. Gov. Perdue decides at an opportune time to reacquaint herself with the life's work of the Marquis of Queensberry. Isn't anyone going to point out her use of a metal chair in round 4?

"Hampton Dellinger would make a great Lieutenant Governor." - Al Gore.

While I'm sure that wasn't intentional - the television stations have to pull the ads - it's still a big Oooops.

I am so happy that Perdue has decided to go positive. North Carolina deserves better. I had planned to vote for her but I feel much better doing so now. The pundits say that this is political suicide but I believe that American and NC needs a change. I disagree with their assessment of what everyday North Carolinians will say. If Mr. Moore continues to run negative adds, I would set the record straight but I would not spend the money of my supporters on adding to his negative ways.

Brunnette, I respect your opinion but I believe that bev perdue is the best candidate this go round. She has served NC well over the years. I believe she wants a better NC and this stance is the place to start. I for one am tired of the ads. Obviously the other side feels that they can only win by slinging piles of dirt. TSK TSK. Let's hear the real issues and you will see that she is for education, healthcare, jobs for NC. The lady has worked hard for NC.

with her usual grace.

Brunette
I have no idea what Richard Moore wants for North Carolina because the ads have been so negative, It's been hard to focus. We already know that everyone's closet isn't clean -including his. I just believe that this is a great time to get beyond all of that and start to talk about what really is important. Most of us know that the ads on tv are shreds of truth (if even that). So why spend time and money talking about the junk. He wants to debate so that he can get his message out - right? Well then get your message out with the 97000 dollars spent each month but do it in a way that is not so negative. Tell me what you will do for me not what your opponent did 20 years ago. Drudging up votes from years ago and stating that this is how a person feels now is silly. What happened years ago dictated votes years ago. What happens now dictates votes now. I am sure you would change a few things from years ago. Votes are dictated by what is happening at the time and I am sure that both candidates made the best decisions they could at the time. they made decisions based on the intel they had. Hmmm, is that why we are in a war in Iraq. Decision based on the intel at that time.

Brunnette,
Thanks for the dialogue. Happy Blogging.

I'm tired of our good decent kids -- that we've raised to be good people and treat others with respect -- being so utterly turned off by the nastiness of negative political campaigns. The good respectful kids are the kids we need to engage in the political process, not turn off. No wonder the Rs are full of sleaze-bag operatives. The level of nastiness in their politics very nearly demands that anyone getting into their party come with "arrogant jerk" written in bright red across their foreheads. I do NOT want to see that happen to our party. Please God.

And Lord knows I've been hearing that "part of the old boy network" blah blah blah for years ... whatever. I'm voting for Perdue. In the process of getting where she is she has busted her ass for NC and nobody can say the woman doesn't know how to get hard things done when they need to get done. She'll be a great Governor. She's proven herself to be ready willing and more than capable of going toe to toe with the big boys and going to the mat for NC at the same time.

And I've never had a problem with the lottery or the way it was established. Maybe I move in different circles from others (I do live in Johnston county) but my friends and associates frankly think the philosophical opposition to a lottery was/is silly. What has to be fixed is the funding structure and mechanism for k-12 education, but that would still be screwed up with or without the lottery. At least now my friends don't have to drive to SC when they'd rather blow a $20 on some lottery tickets instead of on a couple of movie tickets, you know?

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." - Harry Truman

Crossposted with permission from www.talkingaboutpolitics.com

This column is by Carter Wrenn, while it must e admitted that he is a servant of Satan, he makes awfully damned good points~

Negative, Positive and Accurate
Bev Perdue’s campaign manager is filling Internet Inboxes with messages from people praising Perdue, pounding her on the back, for renouncing negative ads. In one email he quotes Priscilla and Kathy and Donna as gushing, “Way to go… you very well may have earned my vote… Mr. Moore’s negative ads have totally turned me off.”

First, an aside: Isn’t Mrs. Perdue slamming Mr. Moore for running dirty campaign ads, well, a negative attack? If so, Beverly’s fallen off the wagon a week after she pledged to stay out of the dirt.

Second, a paradox.

Richard Moore has an ad on TV about a company Perdue co-owns that failed to pay its property taxes on time. The News and Observer says the ad is 100% accurate.

Perdue also has a positive ad she’s aired about her efforts to keep North Carolina’s military bases in open. The Associated Press says: “A key claim of Perdue’s ad that the federal government threatened to close bases in North Carolina is misleading.”

So, what’s worse: Moore’s accurate negative ad? Or Perdue’s misleading positive one?

It seems Perdue has adopted an odd sort of ethic. She’s against telling the truth if it’s negative. But fiction is fine if it’s positive.

Let’s carry this a bit farther. If Mrs. Perdue had her way, the only thing anyone would learn about her record from a TV ad is what she tells them. So she can say she saved Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune and if Moore says, “Wait a minute. The Associated Press says that’s untrue” – that’s verboten. It’s negative.

What kind of sense does that make?

The most negative campaign ever in North Carolina was Helms vs. Hunt. It was also the campaign with the highest turnout ever.

Should Hunt not have had his say about Helms’ record on social security? Or abortion? Or Helms opposing the Martin Luther King Holiday?

Should Helms not have had his say about Hunt’s record on the Panama Canal, taxes and flip-flops?

Should Barack Obama not be able to criticize George Bush – in ads – about the war in Iraq?

Should John McCain not be able to criticize Obama and say he’s dead wrong about the war on terrorism?

Beverly Perdue’s answer to that is no.

No debate. Just positive gushing.

I don’t think Mrs. Perdue has had the great moral epiphany her campaign manager is describing. I think the answer is simpler: Mr. Moore turned up the heat and Bev’s reaction was an irrational, ‘Oh my gosh. Let’s ban stoves.’

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke

Another cross-posting, with permission, from the dark side (Carter Wrenn). It seems to me that Carter's focus on Perdue suggests that she is viewed as the candidate to beat. But his motive really doesn't have much bearing on whether what he is saying is true or not. I remember when the Liston Ramsey "event' occurred. It just doesn't seem like that long ago.

Perdue's Meltdown - Chapter Two
Bev Perdue once called herself ‘the coal-mine’s daughter.’ And there was some truth in it. Her father once worked in a coal mine. But unlike Loretta Lynn’s father he ended up owning it. Several of them.

Not long after Mrs. Perdue arrived in the State House – in 1986 – a cohort of her fellow Democrats organized a cabal to dethrone iron-fisted House czar, Liston Ramsey. They made a deal with Republicans – who didn’t like Ramsey either – to vote for another Democrat (for Speaker) on opening day and get rid of Ramsey.

Now this wasn’t as risky as, say, signing the Declaration of Independence, but no one had much doubt, knowing Ramsey, failure meant the political equivalent of ruin.

Bev Perdue – according to The News and Observer – joined the cabal, and along with the other cabalists signed a melodramatic but probably justified pledge that said in effect, ‘We all agree to hang together’ – because otherwise they would surely hang separately.

The day came for the crucial vote. And every signer of the pledge kept faith. But one. Bev Perdue.

At the last minute she had a sort of meltdown and switched sides.

Later, after she was elected to the State Senate, she recovered, joining Tony Rand and Marc Basnight as ‘one of the boys’ in the Senate’s inner sanctum.

Being one of Basnight’s ‘boys’ – even for a woman – was a pretty safe sinecure. Marc Basnight runs a tight ship. The trains run on time. And as a political ally he’s hard – if you’re a Democrat – to beat. Joining Senator Basnight’s inner sanctum, for Mrs. Perdue, was real political security.

But, after a time, she got restless and decided to strike out on her own and run for Governor. And, for awhile, that worked out fine. She looked to be – at least, if not a shoo-in – a big favorite. Then the shooting started – in the form of negative ads – and the polls tightened and it got risky. Real risky.

At first, Mrs. Perdue tried fighting fire with fire, slinging negative grenades of her own – but it turned out she was no match for Moore.

Moore whacked her for supporting raising tuition at NCSU and UNC and, then, salting the wound dug up an old quote where she’d tried to explain away her vote by saying it was such a small tuition increase even the students admitted ‘its only beer and party money.’

Caught off balance to see her own words thrown back at her, Mrs. Perdue responded by saying even her son – in college at the time – had told her the money “wasn’t a big deal.”

The problem was her son was sixteen. A little young for college.

By then Perdue was feeling the heat. And, last week, she panicked. She announced that negative ads are vile and evil abominations and that she’d never run another one – with the clear inference that if Richard Moore has a shred of decency he wouldn’t either.

That sounded fine. But, from here, it looked like Mrs. Perdue dove into the deep waters of gubernatorial politics, encountered an undertow, raced back to the bank, climbed out and said wide eyed, ‘Whew, I’ve had enough of that.’

In short, she had another meltdown.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
-Edmund Burke