Once strictly GOP, North Carolina may suddenly be a presidential battlegro

[Nambe]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP)

A billboard looms over Interstate 40/ 85 in Alamance County, where George W. Bush carried more than 62% of the vote in the 2000 presidential election.

Since 2001, the sign says, 1.8 million American jobs have been lost: "Fed up? Vote Democratic."

Four years after Al Gore wrote off North Carolina and Bush rolled to victory here, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry is fighting for the state. With North Carolina Sen. John Edwards on the ticket, Democrats believe they may carry the state in a presidential election for the first time since 1976.

On Friday, Kerry is to make his second visit here since naming Edwards his running mate last month.

In the three weeks after the choice was announced, nearly 11,000 people signed up online in North Carolina asking to volunteer, says Morgan Jackson, state director for the Kerry- Edwards campaign. "For a state like North Carolina, that's just not something that happens overnight." ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[indigo32]

1. He's toast

thats all there is too it.

[unfrigginreal]

2. The Friday event in Charlotte was announced in the Observer this morning

by 9AM, all the tickets were gone. The venue only holds 700, but still those tickets went mighty quick. They probably should have used a larger auditorium.

[Lefty48197]

3. Great news for America

So much for the solid south.
Why is NC considered competitive? Is it just the poor economy both local and national?
Or is it the "Edwards factor"? i.e. the fact that Edwards IS a son of a mill-worker, and it's the mill-workers in NC that have been taking the biggest economic beating.

[wildeyed]

21. Edwards is popular, but it is more than that.

People are not happy with Bush. They have lost jobs, lack health coverage, see their loved ones going to fight a war they are beginning to doubt. The discontent is subtle, but it is there. Very conservative place, Kerry will have to finesse these folks into his corner, but it can be done. Abortion rights is a big sticking point with allot of the religious folks I talk to.

GOTV will be very important. More registered dems here than pubs, just gotta get 'em out on Nov 2.

[Warpy]

4. I wrote on this board nine months ago that NC would be in play.

The western part of the state almost makes sense, and they've been hit hard by job losses due to Bush bungling.

[Supersedeas]

5. Ya gotta believe.

And ya better believe that it will be close.

[Arugula Latte]

11. Welcome to DU Super!

Glad to have ya! :toast: :hi:

[calimary]

14. Welcome to DU! But we have to make sure it's NOT close enough

for them to steal.

[Eloriel]

16. Calimary -- it wasn't close in GA in 2002

and IMO they still stole it. There was NOTHING to account for that several-day two-digit flip from Roy Barnes and Max Cleland leading in the polls to their stunning defeats.

In fact, IMO the evildoers learned in FL in 2000 specifically NOT to allow the election results to be "close."

[newyawker99]

24. Hi Supersedeas!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[JoFerret]

6. Don't you just love

good news stories like this. How unsettling they must be for some....

[DrWeird]

7. Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida...

... Bush stronghold states...

[Florida_Geek]

8. Wait there DrWeird

Bush NEVER won Florida....... 10,000 or so black votes did not make it in Duval county

[Dimsdale]

9. Pennsylvania is not a Bush stronghold.

Gore won here in '00 and NFW Kerry doesn't win in Nov.

[lancdem]

12. And Oregon went for Gore in 2000

albeit by a very small margin.

[DrWeird]

13. Yes, and Kerry's ahead now...

Everything I listed were key battleground states that are now slowly but surely going to Kerry, and now Bush strong hold states.

Sorry I wasn't clear.

[yardwork]

18. Ohio is not a Bush stronghold.

Ohio went to Bush by a thin margin in 2000.

[Beetwasher]

10. "May Suddenly Become"??? Bullshit! It IS a Battleground State Now!

It's so obvious that Bush is in serious trouble and yet the "liberal" media is still sticking w/ this close race bullshit...

[damntexdem]

15. Maybe Americans are finally catching on re Dubya.

I don't think a 'favorite son' alone produces such turnarounds.

[DemoTex]

17. I'm in Rep. Charles Taylor (R) country (Transylvania County)

P-R-E-T-T-Y right wing! However, I don't vote here so maybe I should keep my yap shut. I am registered to vote in Greenville, SC. Since we have a downtown condo in Greenville and Dr. D. has an office there, we chose Greenville as our permanent address. That might change. I spend 96% of the time up here in the NC mountains.

[Guaranteed]

19. Edwards was an even better pick than we thought.

Everyone had this idea in the back of their mind, but no one took it seriously. Now look.

[onager]

20. And Edwards May Pull In SC, Too

Most of my family is still living around the little South Carolina cotton mill town where John Edwards was born (Seneca. I was born there too. It had the only hospital for miles). The same neighborhood also spawned Lindsey Graham, but let's not talk about that hypocritical asshat.

My mother remembers car-pooling to the cotton mill with Edwards' parents back in the early Fifties.

Many other people also have similar memories. Edwards is EXTREMELY popular in Upstate South Carolina--a Repug stronghold since 1968. One of Edwards' cousins recently wrote a long LTTE in the local paper. He said that while he had voted Repub for 30 years, he would probably be voting Democratic this year.

That's partly because of Edwards but mostly because of Little George. Based on a purely unscientific random sampling of neighbors when I was back there visiting recently, $hrub is pretty unpopular. Even neighbors I know to be diehard Repubs don't like to talk about him. (One of them is married to a wonderful lady in her 70's who loves Bill Clinton, and is not ashamed to say so in pretty down-to-earth terms.)

This is a rural and generally conservative area of small farmers, millhands (in the few mills still open), construction workers and the like. They see Edwards as the local boy who made good, not as a "slick trial lawyer."

And most of them are smart enough to see right through $hrub, no matter how much edjamakashun they might lack. Rural folk spend a lot of time around bullshit, and they tend to know it when they see it.

[napi21]

23. I hope you're right, but I lived there, and they are imoveable objects.

I lived in Greenville, and the folks there were pretty diverse. Spartanberg, just next door, is nuts! A major chain wanted to build a nice big new hotel in Spartanberg and the citizens all said NO. They wanted their town to say the same as it always has been.

I don't know how much difference BMW was made in the area, but until there are a lot of people move into that state, nothing is going to change.

[Blue_Tires]

22. as a born Virginian

i'll believe that when i see it...I remember when NC pollsters said Harvey Gantt would trounce Jesse Helms back in '90, too