Barack Obama surprised more than 700 N.C. Democrats on Saturday night with an unscheduled appearance at the party's annual Vance-Aycock dinner.

"I hope you don't mind me crashing the party," the Democratic presidential candidate told an enthusiastic crowd in a ballroom at the Grove Park Inn. He was greeted with a prolonged ovation and shouts of "Yes, we can!" Some people stood on chairs for a better view.

Obama arrived in Asheville for a rally this afternoon and two days of quiet preparation for Tuesday's debate against Republican John McCain, Jim Morrill reports. It's Obama's third visit to the state in two weeks.

He alluded to his success in the state's May primary, when he soundly defeated Hillary Clinton.

"People said, 'What's he doing spending so much time in North Carolina?'" Obama said. "It turns out, the people of North Carolina decided they were going to lift up the Obama campaign. ... Maybe we should just keep on coming to North Carolina."

In remarks that lasted about 10 minutes, he gave a truncated version of the stump speech he delivered recently in Charlotte and Greensboro. He criticized the "failed policies" of the Bush administration, including a foreign policy he described as "talking tough but acting dumb."

Charles Taylor will definitely not fight a rematch.

The former Republican Congressman said definitively Saturday that he would not run again against U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler for his old seat. Shuler, a Democrat, beat him in 2006.

He told the Asheville Citizen-Times after his annual holiday dinner at the Grove Park Inn, which featured Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. 

"What part of 'no' don’t you understand?" he said. "I've got my own agenda now. I've got lots of business I have to look after. I may take a look at it the future."

Previously: Editor of Asheville weekly says Taylor probably won't run.

If Democrats rename Vance Aycock, who would they name it for?

State Treasurer Richard Moore, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, suggested renaming the party's annual dinner after former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, former speaker pro tem Marie Colton of Asheville or the late N.C. Speaker Liston Ramsey.

But in a post on This Old State, Charlotte Observer editor Jack Betts argues that Ramsey is a bad choice because of his "ironclad control" of the House in the 1980s.

They ran a rigid pork-barrel system that so disturbed both Democrats and Republicans that a coalition threw him out of office in 1989 and installed Democrat Josephus Mavretic in his place.

Betts says other options, including the late U.S. Sen. Sam Ervin, have their own problems. He suggests naming it for the late state Sens. Herbert Hyde or Jim Richardson.

Um, how about just calling it the Grove Park Inn Dinner?

A group of Republican activists will protest Vance-Aycock.

The Carolina Stompers, a recently created group in Asheville, plans to protest the annual Democratic event for honoring former Democratic Gov. Charles Brantley Aycock.

Aycock, as reported extensively in this series, played a role in the Wilmington coup in 1898.

Chad Nesbitt, an Asheville radio and TV producer and stepson of Democratic Sen. Martin Nesbitt, predicted more than 120 people will come to the protest, to be held at the corner of Charlotte and Macon streets, just down the road from the Grove Park Inn.

Nesbitt, who is white, said he was upset that Democrats have apologized for their role in the race riots but continue to honor Aycock with the name of the dinner, which has been held since 1960.

"They're still honoring a white supremacist," he said.

No word yet on if the group plans to protest Thomas Jefferson's ownership of slaves or Andrew Jackson's treatment of American Indians at the Democrats' annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.

Dave "Mudcat" Saunders will speak at Vance-Aycock.

The political consultant and professional good ol' boy will be the keynote speaker at the annual event, held by the N.C. Democratic Party at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

Saunders, co-author of "Foxes in the Henhouse," has long worked on the so-called "Bubba Vote" of rural, NASCAR-loving bluegrass fans.

A native of Roanoke, he currently works as an advisor to John Edwards. He's previously advised Mark Warner's gubernatorial campaign and Jim Webb's Senate campaign, both in Virginia.

First Lady Mary Easley and several candidates for statewide office will also speak at the Democratic Women's Breakfast that morning.

The event will be held on Saturday, Oct. 6.

Business picked up the tab for a meeting of alcohol officials.

LB&B Associates, which manages the state Alcoholic Beverage Control board warehouse, and Penn National Insurance, which insures local ABC boards, helped pay for a three-day conference at the posh Grove Park Inn in Asheville.

The benefits to local alcohol board members included free premium drinks, subsidized golf games and tournament prizes.

Bob Phillips, head of Common Cause North Carolina, said the conference was a classic example of why public officials shouldn't accept gifts from people they do business with.

But at least one board members said he would make decisions based on what sells, not what they drank at a mountain resort. (Char-O)