Pat McCrory,Jets, Biplanes, and P-51's

Yes day two at the Winston Salem Air Show! What a day, busy from the first! We had around 50 voter registrations, 34 to the GOP, 4 Dems and the rest were independents although many were switching from the Dem Party.

People are energized and telling us how important this coming election is nationally and in the State.

We enjoyed the crowds, I estimate a minimum of around 6-7 thousand. I am still surprised that we were the only people representing any political candidates. Oh well, we loved it.

I'm not a novice to this process, and I will say I haven't seen this much interest ever at this time in the election.

We have a great opportunity here for Pat McCrory and our States future. It's time to take this campaign home!

Winston salem Air Show

Neither Hurricane, Winds and Rain can keep us from our appointed Duties! Or a gal named Hanna!

Three supporters of Pat McCrory, Don Wendelken, Paul Walker and Da Chairman spent the day working the crowd at the Winston Salem Air Show. Around 11am the skys cleared and the crowds came! Thousands of people showed up to view the Airplanes on the ground and in the air.

We had a successful day of Registering people to vote (Around 20) and getting Pat McCrory Yard Signs and Car Magnets into the hands of people from all over the triad!

We left encouraged and energized for the coming election. Interesting that we did not have one individual approach us in support of any Democrat candidate.

It was unusual to have so many thousands of people there and no one wanted to tell us about their favorite Democrat.

Too bad more people involved with campaigns have not gotten out more like this. If you support someone like we support Pat it makes you look forward to the coming battles!

Oh to be a college student again....

Today, I discovered a blog whose contributors are students in a political science class at UNC -- I'll go ahead and let you decide which way the posts swing on the political spectrum.

Anyway, what directed my attention there was a post titled "NC Governor's Race: Vocational Training" which criticizes Pat McCrory's stance on education. The blogger wrote:

"Republican Pat McCrory says he “wants to return the word ‘technical’ to community colleges.” Putting an emphasis on vocational training, he says, would improve the state of North Carolina’s economy by providing workers with a good background in specific fields, such as health care and electrical work, where jobs are waiting.

While a nice thought, the idea that high school students can make an informed decision about which career path they would like to choose is ludicrous. Even here at UNC, the most popular declared major for incoming freshmen is ‘undecided,’ and many of those who declare a major while incoming change it later...

In addition, this type of vocational training has a number of potential pitfalls. Take, for example, the town of High Point, North Carolina. The town, called the ‘furniture capital of the world,’ had a thriving manufacturing sector, but many of the jobs producing furniture have been off-shored to India and other developing nations. If the workers in these factories were trained vocationally, they would not have the broad-based skill set necessary to innovate in light of these changing conditions. The alternative to vocational training, a liberal arts education, focuses on knowledge in a breadth of areas, making it easier for graduates to adapt to new economic situations."

This poster has clearly never heard McCrory throw off on his own liberal arts education while pointing out that many people working in mechanical jobs make more than he does.

Anyway, here's my response:

I have to admit, I’ve never seen an argument FOR a liberal arts education. I have a political science degree and a fairly decent paying job, but I have no illusions that a trained monkey could do my job, let alone someone with just a high school degree.

You’re talking about a very specialized version of vocational training, and that’s not what Pat McCrory is all about. McCrory wants to give high schoolers the opportunity to participate in mechanical training, electrical training, agricultural training, etc. I have news for you: our mechanics aren’t going to be out-sourced to India.

And your theory that no teenager really knows what they want to do with their lives just because a group of first-year college students partying on mommy and daddy’s dime don’t know what to major in doesn’t hold water in the real world. Many high schoolers know by the age of 15 or 16 if they’re going to be working after graduation. Why not give those kids an option of learning a trade while still in high school rather than wasting their time — and everyone else’s, for that matter — with pre-college classes?

People with liberal arts degrees like myself are quickly and easily being replaced by computers. I’ve only been out of school for three years, and I’m already making plans to go back for a supplemental degree. A liberal arts degree isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Matt and the Mayor

This picture was taken at the UNC Charlotte College Republicans Ronald Reagan Leadership Dinner in November of 2007. Being Chairman at the time, the decision fell to the executive board, headed by myself, to choose a local recipient of the award. The previous year, the award went to Reps. Sue Myrick and Robin Hayes. There were several candidates to receive the award this past year, but the clear choice was Mayor Pat McCrory. There were several things about this night that made it special. It was one of my first events in which I was able to give a speech to a group of over 50 people. The dinner was actually held the day after election day, where McCrory won his record 7th term as Mayor. So he was up all night, woke up early to do interviews, and still came out to get an award from a bunch of college kids. I found that most impressive. It was a shear pleasure to also eat dinner with the Mayor and listen to him talk about his life and get to see how knowledgable he really is about the issues. Of course, it would be just a few months after this dinner when he would announce his run for Governor. I was immediately on board.

I love the slogan of his campaign, "The Difference is Leadership." It wasn't born on this night, but it was one of many examples of others seeing what the citizens of North Carolina will see: a real leader.

Flying Straight and True for Pat McCrory

Today we set up a Tent at the Winston-Salem Airshow! We'll be registering citizens to vote, providing info in Pat, encouraging people to volunteer to work on the campaign!
And, we get to be around the Airplanes that fought for our Country from World War II until today.
Pat McCrory has brought to us the opportunity to continue the promise of North Carolina and the United States at it's best!
Pat has brought to the citizens of North Carolina the opportunity to bring honest, courageous government back to the people! We want to pass along to all of our citizens our belief in Pat and his mission to be governor of North Carolina!
We'll be there Sat and Sunday 10am-6pm!

James Carville sees promising outcome for Pat McCrory in November

James Carville's group, Democracy Corps, recently conducted a poll in North Carolina to rate voter's knowledge and general feelings on the candidates. The poll focused mostly on national candidates, but had a few questions which involved gubernatorial candidates Pat McCrory and Bev Perdue -- and I have to say, I'm a little shocked to see results like this from such a liberal poll!

The poll had voters rate each candidate on a scale of 1 - 100 based on how favorably they viewed them (1 being the least favorable, 100 being most, 50 being neither). Out of a list of eleven candidate, Pat McCrory was veiwed the most favorably with a mean score of 55. Bev Perdue received a mean score of 49, and the only person scoring lower than her was John Edward (with a mean score of 35).

In the typical "who would you vote for if the election were held today" question, the vote was completely split between Perdue and McCrory. Given the fact that the rest of the responses lean a bit on the liberal side, this is a little amazing. Even more amazing is when you take into consideration the fact that a 527 has been running ads against Pat McCrory for the past few weeks, while Perdue has had the luxury of having NO negative ads run against her. Must be nice.

I feel good about November. Pat McCrory should too.

"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!