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Wednesday, October 31, 2007
News Candidate Heavyweights Face Off
Posted By Web Editor on Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 2:36 PM
By Cheris Hodges
With just days until the election, the heavyweights running for mayor faced off in the Fox Charlotte Studios Tuesday.
In the red (Republican) corner, with 12 years of sitting in the mayor’s chair under his belt, was Pat McCrory -- the man who makes every election day seem like Groundhog’s Day. And in the blue (Democratic) corner, a black woman with seven terms in the state house and a friend to payday lenders everywhere around North Carolina, Beverly Earle.
Each candidate was given the chance to ask the other questions about three issues and then there was the rebuttal period. Unfortunately, there were no YouTube users in sight to ask the burning questions.
What started out as a snarky "disbate" -- a discussion/debate -- was a love fest by the end with Earle and McCrory praising each other. Yawn.
Now, there were moments when things got a little testy. For instance, Earle praised the “democratic city council for a lot of the action that has taken place over the years” in regards to neighborhood development around the city.
McCrory retorted with, “I get no credit for any of that.”
While they pointed out each other’s flaws -- Earle telling McCrory that he should’ve focused on developing more than just Uptown Charlotte and McCrory accused Earle of opening the door for predatory lenders to come back to Charlotte and North Carolina -- one thing was clear: both of them have political ease down to a boring science. Neither of them have a clue as to what the real issues of the city are.
It’s easy to stand behind crime, transportation and economic development, but what about the environment? Civil rights issues and such. Neither candidate made an attempt to talk about Charlotte’s diversity nor how their administration would bridge the gaps.
McCrory chose to blame Raleigh for the fact that criminals get arrested and released to terrorize the city over and over again. Earle pointed out, which was one of the better moments of the debate, that, “Mr. McCrory is not running against Raleigh, he’s running against me.”
And speaking of running. When the debate was over, McCrory said that he had to get out of the studio and didn’t take any questions from the print media, but gave the obligatory, “Good to see ya.” Then he proceeded to smile for the Fox Charlotte cameras and answer questions about street projects.
Earle, seeming to know that she needs all the press she can muster, stopped to answer a few questions. She said that she was going to ask McCrory about his July 4th comment where he said kids dressed in baggy pants and white tee shirts were trying to be gangsta.
“I guess I expected it to stay more on target with the questions,” Earle said. “(Diversity) was to be one of my questions. I don’t think he wants to discuss it but there needs to be more and more discussions on it.”
Earle said there needs to be ongoing discussion of the race issue in Charlotte and not just meetings at the convention center once a year where people sit a mixed table and think that racism has gone bye-bye.
Still, this debate showed why Pat McCrory has been the mayor for 12 years, as boring as he maybe, he can tap dance his way out of any question. Like a hippy from the '60s, McCrory has never met a question he couldn’t dodge.
The forum was supposed to feature the candidates asking each other questions; McCrory used his time to highlight what he (despite the fact that this is a weak mayor/strong council system of government) has done for the city of Charlotte, which he thinks is the greatest city in America.
Where are the violins?
Want to watch the debate? Grab some No Doz and log on to www.WENSTV.com or www.thecharlottepost.com.
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