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Monday: Divas and Dems
posted at 2008-10-07 00:49 | Last modified 2008-10-07 00:51
Dueling Divas
NC gets its first course in Palin-tology tomorrow as the GOP Veep candidate makes her initial appearance at a rally in Greenville. The McCain campaign hasn’t held a single public event here since the primary, and it’s clear they’re hoping to make as much hay out of this one as possible.
Reporters were invited to cover tonight’s set-up for the rally as well as the arrival of Palin’s “Straight Talk Air” plane tomorrow afternoon -- neither of which, one notes, involves actually talking to the AK governor. (And no, FTR, the Obama campaign doesn’t usually tout its airplane landings.)
I’ll be at the Palin rally – listen for our coverage Tuesday afternoon and Wed. morning.
At the other end of the ticket, Michelle Obama is also headed for eastern NC Tuesday. She’s holding a roundtable in Jacksonville early tomorrow afternoon, and rumor has it she’ll be making some other impromptu stops around the area.
On one hand, the two aren’t really comparable: Michelle Obama isn’t a nominee, while Sarah Palin is. But on the other hand, it’s hard not to see the double-booking as proof that women voters in eastern NC matter more to this race than they have in a long time.
Discursive Dems
A merry band of eastern NC Dems descended on the State Farmers’ Market in Raleigh today to rally already-loyal Obama volunteers to, one presumes, greater heights.
Former Gov. Jim Hunt, State Senate Maj. Leader Tony Rand and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall shared the stage with four Congressmen: G.K. Butterfield, Brad Miller, Bob Etheridge, and David Price. The result was about 70 minutes of preaching to the choir – and in the hot, packed room, more than a few heads were nodding by the end.
Still, it had its moments. Rand was entertaining as always, Hunt as convincing, and Marshall offered a passionate argument for Obama’s health care plan. Etheridge was quiet, dry, and effective as usual.
But I thought the best speaker was Brad Miller. The usually self-effacing Congressman has had more than his share of the spotlight lately. He says it’s because of advice he got early on from David Price.
“‘You need to pick an issue. You need to find probably an obscure technical issue that no one else is really working on. Learn that issue, become the expert, become the advocate. You’ll never be heard from again – your photograph will probably be on cartons of milk. But you’ll be doing the work of Congress as an institution, and you’ll be doing the work of the republic.’
“And that’s what I did. The issue I picked was mortgage lending. [big laugh] It’s become less obscure lately.”
Even as he defended the unpopular bailout compromise he helped craft, Miller managed tossed in a couple of the day’s best zingers:
"John McCain has got one thing gloriously right in this campaign: he said early on that economics was not really his strong suit -- and it’s been like he’s trying to prove himself right."
"Barack Obama, I can tell you from fairly close observation, has shown real maturity, judgment – you know, he may be 25 years younger than John McCain, but the grownup in this race is Barack Obama."
His comments in their entirety are below.
Listen Now!
Still and all...
Sarcastic as he may have been on stage, Miller was anything but flip afterwards when he was asked why the bailout bill didn’t seem to stem today’s global market freefall:
“We are not out of the woods. It is not like Congress was gonna pass this on Friday and then Monday morning everything was gonna be fine. We are gonna have a recession.. The question is how long it’ll last and how deep it’s gonna be. And we’re scrambling to try to limit the damage that the policies of the last eight years have created.”
You can hear that and more here:
Listen Now!
More tomorrow late after I file my story from the Palin rally. I have my name on the interview list, but I’m not holding my breath. Hey, you gotta ask, right?
Comments? Drop me a line.
