Tag search result

Barack Obama is criticizing John McCain's tactics in a new robocall.

In an automated call to North Carolina voters, a supporter of the Democratic presidential candidate accuses McCain of running a "dishonorable campaign."

The call, recorded by WUNC reporter Laura Leslie, features Lenny Julius, an Emerald Isle man who met with Obama backstage before his speech at the Democratic national convention in Denver.

"I used to support John McCain. In fact, I served with him in the Navy," he says. "But this year, he's running a dishonorable campaign. This election should be about policies and ideas, not about vicious personal attacks."

After the jump, the script.

DENVER – Who would've thunk it?

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley seems to be enjoying politicking at the Democratic National Convention.

Easley, who normally eschews politics, has been busy working the convention.

He has been attending fundraising receptions for the Democratic Governors Association, has given more than 20 press interviews and is speaking to delegation breakfasts in such states as Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan Arizona and Virginia.

He also also been networking with law firms and companies hosting receptions.

More after the jump.

DENVER - Gov. Mike Easley told North Carolina delegates to the Democratic National Convention this morning that Harvey Gantt's U.S. Senate races laid the groundwork for Barack Obama in North Carolina.

"We've got a score to settle," Easley said, reports Jim Morrill.

Gantt, Charlotte's first African-American mayor, beat Easley in a runoff to win the 1990 Democratic Senate nomination. He went on to lose to Republican Sen. Jesse Helms that year and again in 1996.

"We had a chance to elect the first African-American statewide in North Carolina and we came that close and fell short," Easley said.

Later Easley told reporters the Gantt campaigns "showed that race is something you can transcend, and I think Barack Obama has done that."

More after the jump.

DENVER - During the Democratic National Convention, Denver's Pepsi Center is abuzz with thousands of delegates, journalists, vendors, workers and others.

But outside the arena, beyond the big white media tents and TV satellite trucks, is a broad no-man's land protected by chain link, concrete barriers and police roadblocks, reports Jim Morrill.

The security perimeter extends for blocks around the arena itself. The closest light rail stop is closed for the week. A shuttle bus from downtown dropped its passengers off several blocks away, a long walk in the hot afternoon sun.

From the hotel where the North Carolina delegation is staying, in a far south suburb, it takes about 20 minutes to get downtown by light rail. To get a convention shuttle downtown, you pass by the convention center. Outside the center are vendors of almost every stripe. There are Obama buttons, T-shirts and necklaces. Animal rights activists passed out "Tax Meat" buttons.

And Planned Parenthood volunteers, dressed in pink T-shirts, handed out special mementoes: Pink containers of condoms.

"Protect yourself from John McCain," they said.

DENVER - The North Carolina delegation to the Democratic National Convention gathered Sunday night for the first time at an ice cream social -- although there was an open bar as well.

The gathering was in the lobby of the Doubletree Denver Tech Hotel, which is located miles from downtown in an office park off an interstate in suburb of Greenwood Village. The town, by the way, is so manicured and sterile that it makes Cary look like Greenwich Village by comparison, reports Rob Christensen.

The event attracted both newcomers such as Durham County commissioner Ellen Reckhow and 18-year-old Jared Hagemann of Camden as well as political veterans such as Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, former House Speaker Dan Blue of Raleigh and Raleigh attorney Ed Turlington.

Some people had been in Denver for days. Kevin Monroe, the state Obama political director, has been working on security. Gerry Cohen, a top staffer at the state legislature, has been serving on the convention credentials committee.

Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is halting its television advertising in North Carolina and six other states next week while the Democratic convention is being held.

The campaign of Republican John McCain immediately questioned whether the Obama campaign was pulling out of states where it was losing support, reports Rob Christensen.

But an Obama spokesman said the suspension of the advertising campaign was not a signal of any lessening of interest in North Carolina.

"The Obama campaign is committed to North Carolina and nothing shows that more than that Sen. Obama was here on Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Paul Cox, a spokesman for Obama in North Carolina.

Cox confirmed that the Obama campaign was suspending its ads in North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Alaska, Montana and North Dakota. Those states have tended to be Republican-leaning states in presidential contests, and Obama’s efforts there represented a gamble.

Several of those states, particularly Florida and Virginia, are almost certain to be battleground states in the fall.

Officials with Obama's national campaign have told several news organizations that the advertising is being suspended for the duration of the National Democratic Convention next week.

Read more after the jump.

Some of John Edwards' delegates feel betrayed.

As the countdown to the Democratic National Convention gets underway, some of the volunteers attending on behalf of the former presidential candidate say they are disappointed by revelations of his affair with Rielle Hunter.

Former Cary teacher Linda Gunter had spent a month trudging through the snows of New Hampshire for Edwards and led the cheers in 2004 when he accepted the vice presidential nomination.

"My bubble of enthusiasm for presidential politics was really deflated," says Gunter, 58. "Some people might get discouraged from getting involved because they really believed in him, and he let them down."

Some are angry that Edwards continued to campaign even after the National Enquirer first reported the affair.

"There is a feeling that it was very selfish of him to pursue the presidency knowing that this skeleton was in his closet," says delegate Vinod Thomas, 32, of Cornelius. "The Democratic Party would be in a very tough position now if John Edwards was our nominee." (Char-O)

Can't make it to Denver?

You can send a video instead. The Democratic National Convention will hold a virtual "town hall" with video submissions from around the country.

Politicians and Democratic experts will answer questions posed in the videos.

To get your question taped, go to Moore Square in Raleigh on the corner of Martin and South Blount streets today from 4 to 8 p.m.

Staffers from the Barack Obama campaign will be on hand. 

Several prominent Democrats say John Edwards needs to address claims that he fathered a child.

With two weeks before the national convention, some prominent party strategists say that the former North Carolina senator has to address a story in the National Enquirer to save his spot as a speaker.

As a former vice presidential nominee and a presidential candidate who won delegates this year, Edwards would normally be a shoo-in for a speaking slot. But some worry that lingering questions will be raised if Edwards speaks.

Edwards called the story "tabloid trash," but he has avoided talking with reporters at length.

"If it's not true, he's got to stand up and say, 'This is not true. That is not my child and I'm going to take legal action against the people who are spreading these lies.' It's not enough to say, 'That's tabloid trash,' " said Gary Pearce, a strategist who ran Edwards' 1998 Senate race.

Don Fowler, a former Democratic National Committee chairman, said that Edwards has to give "an explanation that's satisfactory." (Char-O)