Posted on 07/09/2004 8:35:23 AM PDT by Spackidagoosh
Local Boy Made Huge
ROBBINS, N.C. — Two days after Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry announced his choice of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as a running mate, there was little evidence of the event in Edwards' rural, industrial hometown.
There were no banners, no balloons, no Kerry-Edwards lawn signs.
Although the owner of the Capt. Snipper Salon and Day Spa had put up a hand-lettered poster on the morning of the announcement — "Congradulations to John Edwards" — that poster was gone by the next day.
At Amy's Cafe, old men in work-worn clothes sat eating barbecue sandwiches. The police chief's office was empty in the stifling heat; a door handle clattered to the floor when visitors entered and exited the station.
"It's dead anyway," said Gary Maness, 59, the owner of B & G Fashion, along Robbins' two-block downtown. "But on Wednesdays, it's even more dead."
In campaign speeches across the country, Edwards has shaped his small-town upbringing into a resonant American story. In some ways, the Robbins he describes holds true — with more than 2,000 factory jobs lost since 1990, people can feel their town's future constricting.
Most would agree with the small-town values that Edwards evoked while campaigning in the Democratic primary: "Work. Responsibility. A fair shake for all and a free ride for none."
What Edwards does not mention in these speeches is the deep vein of Republicanism that runs through his hometown. Edwards did not carry the county, Moore, in his run for the U.S. Senate; in Robbins, the town that formed his political identity, he won 394 to 267.
And last week, as national attention was trained on Edwards' charisma and character, some residents expressed lukewarm feelings about his political ascent.
"He lives in Raleigh. He doesn't live here," said Terry Parrott, a United Parcel Service deliveryman who lives in nearby Carthage. "Seems like, in the last couple of years, the only time he's been here was when the news comes to town."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ha! One could read a lot into that statement! Good article.
FYI
Thanks for the ping! I will ping the NC list.
Or this one either!
*Snicker*
Guess this why he tells everyone he's from another State .. *L*
He pretends to be from both Carolinas--but neither of them will own him, now! His only home is a busy intersection, and the rear bumper of an ambulance.
He didn't carry his own county!
Hahaha.
I so want NC to go in Bush's column.
Think it will?
Yes, I do.
The little punk really is from both Carolinas, with a Mansion in Washington, DC. Most Carolineans would be happier if he was farther from the Carolinas, like maybe Washington state.
=================================== Edwards Explains Patting Heads of Handicapped People
(2004-02-24) -- Democrat presidential candidate John Edwards attempted to assauge the concerns of disability rights activists who claimed he "patted" the heads of some people in wheelchairs during a campaign rally in Rochester, New York, today.
"I meant no disrespect by patting the heads of the handicapped," said Mr. Edwards. "I wish I could pat all of my supporters that way, but it's harder to reach the heads of people who are standing up. I really see the heads of wheelchair-bound folks as representative of all the voter heads I would love to pat. I hope my standing supporters get some vicarious thrill from seeing me pat these low-altitude heads."
Mr. Edwards said head patting was common in the textile mill town where he grew up.
"I have looked into the eyes of a mill worker who just lost his job," he said. "And when I saw that desperate look, I would pat him on the head...you know, if he was sitting down, or in a wheelchair, or if I was on a platform above him. The head patting seemed to make us both feel better about him losing his job."
Source
Thanks.
What caught my attention was;
"Populism was a bone-deep tradition in Robbins even before it became an industrial center. While the plantation economy to the north and the south raked in money, "there wasn't a slave within 10 miles" of Robbins, said John L. Frye Sr., 85, a former mayor. The Scotch-Irish farmers eked out a living in hilly land and refused to join the Confederacy, Frye said."
Well that helps explain his hostility towards the Confederate flag, and his acceptance of the leftwing notion that there is only one possible valid view on the flag; i.e that it is an irredeemable racist symbol of slavery and white supremacy. I guess the fact that most Southern whites and Confederate soldiers during the Civil War didn't own slaves and that what their major motivation for fighting was to repel what they saw as a northern invasion just doesn't matter to people like Edwards. Even back then the Edwards line was just too good for the rest of NC.
But I love the stats on how well he did in his own home town. That was pathetic. But not surprising because he does not come close to representing real small-town NC values.
WTF??? Is this for real or some Onion.com type of site?
It wouldn't really surprise me if it is true. Liberals do think that they are superior, and thus that it is their right to rule all the little people. Yeah, I could see that.
I knew you'd love those numbers! And values!
The little punk really is from both Carolinas, with a Mansion in Washington, DC. Most Carolineans would be happier if he was farther from the Carolinas, like maybe Washington state.
Don't forget the house on Figure 8 where the "mill town workers" aren't allowed across the bridge.
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