State Rep. John Blust wants the world to know he's still proud of America.

The Greensboro Republican filed a resolution, entitled "Attacks on America," that would repudiate recent remarks by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at world forums.

Blust said he did not feel President Obama responded "vigorously" enough to their criticism of America.

"Many of these people doing the criticizing don't really have very good records of their own as far as human rights," he said. "We're still a great republic. We still have courts that enforce people's individual rights. We still provide aid all over the world."

The resolution calls for a copy to be sent to the president, each member of the state's Congressional delegation and the governors and legislative leaders of all 50 states. 

The resolution has 34 cosponsors, all Republicans. 

How closely have North Carolina's senators worked with Barack Obama?

A quick search of legislation filed this session shows that U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr have each cosponsored one bill with the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Dole signed on to an Obama bill to authorize state and local governments to divest from companies that have invested more than $20 million in Iran's energy sector.

Burr signed on to an Obama bill to accelerate research into the genetic causes of disease in order to improve medical diagnoses.

Obama has not signed on to any Dole- or Burr-sponsored bills.

John McCain attacked Barack Obama in Charlotte.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee argued that Obama as no national security experience Monday as he arrived for three fundraisers and a speech at the Chamber of Commerce, the Associated Press reports.

He argued that Obama's comments last year that he would be willing to meet with leaders of rogue nations such as Iran, North Korea and Cuba was irresponsible.

"Senator Obama wants to sit down with an Iranian leader who is dedicated to wiping Israel off the map - his words," he told reporters on his campaign bus. "I don't think we should give him that kind of prestige. Senator Obama obviously has no national security experience, and therefore that's reflected in his judgment on a number of those issues."

An Obama spokesman rebutted that McCain has supported the war in Iraq, which he called "disastrous." 

McCain is scheduled to speak at Wake Forest University today. 

Republican Mike Huckabee, riding a wave of success in recent presidential polls, drew around 400 supporters—including hundreds of home-schoolers and their children—to uptown Charlotte this morning.

Supporters clutching kids and signs crammed into a 27th floor restaurant in Charlotte Plaza, crowding elevators and creating temporary gridlock in the building's lobby, reports The Charlotte Observer's Jim Morrill.

The Charlotte stop kicked off a two-day swing through South Carolina for the former Arkansas governor. He'll visit Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Columbia and Greenville.

Two recent polls show Huckabee leading his GOP rivals in South Carolina. A new Associated Press poll released Friday shows he has surged to second in the GOP field behind former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. And a Des Moines Register poll this week showed him leading in Iowa, whose Jan. 3 caucuses kick off the presidential nominating contests.

Read more after the jump.

   Comments (0)

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards hit the campaign trail in Iowa today with two popular musicians, but he was singing a familiar tune - that Sen. Hillary Clinton is too closely tied to the special interests in Washington.

Edwards sought to draw distinctions between himself and Clinton on such issues as health care, the war in Iraq and U.S. relations with Iran, Rob Christensen reports from Iowa.

Edwards said that when Clinton voted to classify the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization she was playing into the hands of the Bush administration, allowing them beat the drums of war.

"Senator Clinton voted yes," Edwards said, "I was opposed. She is entitled to her vote. I just have a different opinion.

"Can we finally show some backbone and courage as a Democratic Party?"

About 650 showed up at a high school auditorium in Davenport to hear Edwards and to hear singers Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne perform. The two entertainers will spend today and Tuesday on the campaign trail in Iowa for Edwards.

Raitt described Edwards as "a man of the people -- all of the people, all of the time."

John Edwards is taking a page from The Onion.

The former North Carolina senator has sent out a fake front page from Nov. 5, 2008, edition of "Scary Times" that shows a landslide win by Rudy Giuliani, promising "continuation and escalation of Bush policies at home and abroad."

The headlines are meant to induce Halloween horror among Democrats:

"VP-elect Jeb Bush keeps family tradition alive."

"Corporations, special interests declare 'open season' on Washington."

"Blackwater secures billion-dollar executive protection contract."

Other mock stories show Republicans taking control of Congress, Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove being reappointed and Ann Coulter stepping in as White House spokeswoman.

The caption beneath Giuliani's photo: "Giuliani to Iran: 'Bring it On'"

Presidential candidate John Edwards called the flap over his $400 haircut "embarrassing."

Appearing on the nationally syndicated Ed Schultz radio show today, he said he didn't realize the haircut would be so expensive, Rob Christensen reports.

"This particular thing is really embarrassing," Edwards told a live audience of about 250 people in the student union auditorium on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill.

"No one should pay $400 for a haircut," he said.

Because of a heavy schedule of campaigning, Edwards said he often gets his hair cut in hotel rooms. He said staff arranged it, so he didn't realize how much it would cost.

"I knew it was going to be expensive," he said. "I don't want to mislead. When a haircut guy comes to your hotel to cut your hair, it's not going to be cheap."

Last week, his campaign said that Edwards would reimburse it for the cost of the haircuts.

Edwards was joined by his wife, Elizabeth. For about an hour, they also answered questions from the host and the audience on Iraq, health care and the genocide in Darfur.