If you can’t see Barack Obama tomorrow, I’ve got you covered

Barack Obama is coming to Raleigh and some residents don’t mind waiting

I headed over to Barack Obama’s local campaign headquarters in downtown Raleigh this morning to find out how long people would wait in line to get tickets to see him at Thursday’s town hall meeting.

Check back here tomorrow afternoon because I plan to live blog the event (I’ll post details when I know more). In the meantime, read the post I wrote about the line waiting this morning for New Raleigh.

I guess he’s not voting for Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton

Spotted on the back of a pickup truck in Raleigh:

I guess we know who he’s not voting for. Wonder what the Democratic response to this bumper sticker would be? No Paul, No Nader, No POWs.

What were you doing five years ago when America invaded Iraq?

It’s hard to believe five years have nearly passed since we went to war in Iraq.

A coalition of local groups plan to commemorate the invasion on Wednesday by gathering in downtown Raleigh, according to an e-mail I received today.

The event is planned to coordinate with a national effort supported by Operation Democracy with some 700 individual meetings scheduled. The groups will be meeting at the south side of Capital Square in downtown Raleigh on Morgan Street. The event is scheduled for 5 – 6:30 PM. The purpose of the vigil is to honor the troops and to focus attention on the need to end the war, a war whose cost is becoming more and more dangerous to the overall national economy.

The vigil will include readings of personal accounts from military personnel and their families. All interested parties are encouraged to participate and show their support for our military personnel.

Some of my friends and I were talking the other day about whether we remember where we were when the invasion occurred. I was interning for the State Journal-Register in Springfield, Ill., and I remember watching coverage from an itty-bitty TV screen behind my editors desk. I also remember naively thinking that the war would certainly be a quick one.

Here’s President Bush’s 2003 announcement of the invasion of Iraq:

Do you remember the day the war was launched? At that time, did you think we’d still be this engaged in Iraq?

Drinking with the Presidential Candidates

So I checked out the “beer caucus” at Flying Saucer in Raleigh last night to see which presidential candidates patrons most wanted to drink a beer with. I spoke with Dean Plunkett of the North Carolina Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association who clarified that he hoped people based their vote on something more significant than who they’d like to drink with.

If you missed the event, you can still vote online.

Which candidate do you think I picked? I’ll let you know if you get it right.

John Edwards Dropping Out of Presidential Race

That’s according to MSNBC, which is blaring in the background.

I guess that means you won’t be able to drink a beer with him tonight.

Edwards has said that he was going to stick it out, but looks like that’s no longer the case. Are you surprised?

Update: This Associated Press article was just posted discussing the end of his presidential bid.

Which Presidential Candidate Would You Rather Have a Beer With?

So you’re at the bar, and in walks the remaining presidential candidates. They each plop down at a separate table, and you’re allowed to join only one of them. Who do you pick?

That’s what the folks at the North Carolina Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association want to know. They’re planning a “beer caucus” at the Flying Saucer in Raleigh from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday. Those who attend will be asked which candidate they’d prefer to have a beer with in 2008. They’ll count the ballots and declare a winner.

“With all of the rigors of a campaign - attack ads, phone calls, direct mail - Americans know sometimes it just comes down to who you want to have a beer with,” said Dean Plunkett Executive Director of North Carolina Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association (NCBWWA). “We hope this campaign reminds voters that at the end of the day, while issues are very important, so is friendly conversation and good-natured debate. Having a beer with someone represents getting to know someone better, and that’s what the campaign season is all about - getting to know these candidates better.”

I think the event sounds like fun (especially since I’m a member of the Saucer’s U.F.O. Club and am working on drinking 200 different beers so I can have my brass plate added to the wall). But I think Mr. Plunkett’s suggestion that “sometimes it just comes down to who you want to have a beer with” is ignorant.

Maybe it is a sad but true reality that some Americans do cast ballots based on who they’d rather sip a beer with instead of a candidate’s stance on important issues (isn’t that how some say Bush got elected?). But that shouldn’t be the reason you vote for any particular candidate. It’s our duty as Americans to research the candidates and enter the voting booth with, at a minimum, a somewhat legitimate reason for why we’re voting for someone.

I don’t care who you vote for in the upcoming presidential election. I don’t care if your vote cancels my vote out. Just please, do not base your vote on who you would rather have a beer with.

That being said, which presidential candidate would you most want to chug a lug with?

Cheers to the State of the Union

I’ll be watching President Bush’s State of the Union address tonight like a good little American. For the past four years, I’ve found a way to make sitting through the speech a lot more fun. It’s called “The State of the Union Address Drinking Game.”

Basically, you take a drink every time something somewhat predictable happens such as the use of the word “freedom” or anytime the camera shows a special guest introduced by the president, Ted Kennedy or some other political character.

If you’re just playing with a few people, you can just print out the list of drinking rules from http://www.drinkinggame.us/ and keep it handy. Or, if you turn it into a party like my friends and I have, you can write the rules on some poster board so everyone can keep an eye on them.

Do you plan to watch the speech? Do you have any of your own State of the Union rituals?

If Barack Obama was the Mayor of Durham

What would Durham’s “state of the city address” have been like if it was delivered by presidential hopeful Barack Obama instead of Mayor Bill Bell?

Well, first of all, I can guarantee city hall would have been packed (although, it’s likely that even with a packed crowd the public-to-journalist ratio still may have been in the range 10-to-1 range that Kevin referenced in his Bull City Rising blog.)

Independent Weekly editor Lisa Sorg speculated how the annual address might have been different in her most recent column. Her rendition includes some words Obama is known for dropping, such as “hope” and “change.” This may be the most spot on paragraph in her psuedo-speech:

Yes, we have challenges, but we also have hope. We hope someone will visit downtown after six o’clock. We hope someone will pay $60 to see a show at the Durham Performing Arts Center. We hope, someday, someone will speak of Durham without uttering the words “Duke” and “lacrosse.”

Anyone else want to try their hand at guessing what Mayor Bell’s speech would have sounded like if it were delivered by John Edwards, John McCain or maybe even Ron Paul?

Durham Residents React to Mayor Bell’s State of the City Address

I watched Durham Mayor Bill Bell deliver the annual State of the City Address last night. The mayor opened by touting some of the city’s accomplishments last year. Then he spoke about the challenges for the upcoming year. On a lighter note, if there is any question about my attendance at the speech, a competing local TV station solidified my presence by including me in their broadcast (see right).

Among the highlights from Bell’s speech:

• The city and county must continue to work to reduce green house gas emissions
• The city should change its pricing structure for water so that heavy water users are paying higher rates
• City administrators should “present a definitive proposal defining” the city’s legal authority to deny water and sewer connections for future developments
• The city should continue to make revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods a top priority, including North East Central Durham, Southwest Central Durham, Rolling Hills and the South Side Community
• The city and its residents need to step up efforts to reduce crime. Residents, he said, should participate in neighborhood watches. Additionally, he said, the bonds set for people charged with serious crimes needs to be looked at. For even more details, check out the recap posted on the Durham blog Bull City Rising.

Afterward, I stopped some residents in the lobby and asked them what they thought about the mayor’s speech: