The Diversity of the Campaign Trail

My travels this past week have highlighted the amazing variations of the campaign experience that make it both a challenge and yet provides the richness and diversity that makes a campaign so interesting. Tuesday night found my wife and me in the countryside near Greenville, meeting with a group of conservative activists. The dinner at Lee's Country Kitchen was buffet style, good country cooking like collards and pork chops. Great food, great conversation and a chance to talk about the issues in the governor's race.

The next day in New Bern we visited with the Republican Women's Club, did a newspaper interview and then spent an hour talking to a prominent Republican activist. This was followed by an opportunity to see the newest member of the family, the infant daughter of our nephew and his wife who live in New Bern. (I resisted the temptation to kiss the baby although she's mighty cute. I'll save that photo op for later.)

Thursday night featured an intimate and stimulating dinner in Durham with about 8 couples who were there for the fun and "checking out the candidate". It was a great opportunity to talk with a range of prominent men and women in the business and professional communities and to exchange views and ideas. Will it produce the hoped for show of support in the days to come? I think so, but even if it doesn't it was a great dinner and a fun evening.

Friday found me speaking in front of a large group of business people who were representing their respective companies at a meeting of the NC Technology Association. For a liberal arts kind of guy that type of Q&A makes me a little nervous but all in all I was very pleased with the opportunity to explain my position on the issues. Since several of the members had received "incentives" that I had been critical of, I was curious to see what kind of response I might get. Not a stone was thrown.

Saturday was a very interesting day as we attended the installation of my law school classmate Judge Tom Ross as the new president of Davidson College. It was a very impressive occasion and a chance to visit with a number of people, including Governor Jim Martin (former Davidson chemistry professor) and his wife Dottie. I also talked at length with D.G. Martin about the campaign but couldn't wrangle an invite for his WUNC-TV Book program. OK, so I haven't written a book but I will. Maybe I'll call it "More Than a Little Extra Effort". After a quick tour of campus we had a nice meeting with one of my supporters to talk strategy for the months ahead.

Perhaps the most interesting event of the week was the Saturday night dinner put on by the Caldwell County GOP. My wife and daughter were not sanguine about heading into Google territory in light of my strong opposition to the huge subsidy. I promised to keep weaving since a moving target was harder to hit but they didn't seem to appreciate my humor. Anyway, I was received cordially if not with some restraint and the not-so-veiled antagonism of a few. The gentleman across from me at dinner, wore his Google hat and a blinking Google pin and it was obvious that he wasn't interested in engaging me in conversation. But I made my pitch, actually got nice applause and didn't back off my commitment to follow the constitution and oppose bad public policy. With a bright moon lighting the way, we quickly exited the county and made it back to Raleigh by midnight.

Sunday was church, a nap, the YMCA for a badly needed workout and my daughter's fall athletic banquet. Tonight it's blogging, paying bills, reading Sunday's paper and watching what will probably be the final game of the World Series. A new week comes bright and early and we'll crank up my old Willie Nelson CD and take off once more to his melodious version of "On the Road Again."