Betts: Maybe Perdue is right

I find it amazing that a number of times over the last few weeks, NC columnists such as Betts have concluded by saying that Beverly has improved her debating skills some. It seems to be a patronizing way of saying that she is not very good at it. The bigger fear to North Carolinians is that Beverly cannot think on her feet. Recent examples include:

- When asked by Jim Morrill if she would be going to the fundraiser that Sewell was hosting for her this week: "I need to think about that"

- During an interview regarding Ike on WBT Radio in Charlotte, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue advised motorists to get out and “get our gas tanks as full as they’ll let us do it during in the next 24 or 48 hours” due to Hurricane Ike. When questioned by host Al Gardner if this would create a panic, Perdue flip-flopped and said people should not overact and “there is no need for anybody to rush right out.”

- When asked by the WRAL debate moderator about what she would do differently than Easley all she could come up with after repeated follow-ups was, "I would be more hands on."

- During the same WRAL debate, she emphatically states that physical health is obviously separate from mental health. She has to back track the next week when she says that "my background in health care tells me that it makes no sense to separate mental from physical health care."

Expect her to be invisible just like Easley if she becomes Governor! That is not the type of Governor we need at this time.

I am confounded by this decision, Jack. This Perdue campaign never fails to surprise you. Here you have a great statewide candidate for the Democratic Party running for governor in the best traditions of the Democratic Party's service to the people of the entire state of North Carolina passing up an opportunity to literally "go to her strength," political speaking, that is, appear in a high-toned forum to be seen by civic-mionded and issue-oriented citizens across the Old North State.

Honestly, if you were running for any statewide office for which the UNC Television Network were willing to host a candidates' forum, would you dare miss the opportunity to be there? In fact, if there is one shortcoming to the Perdue campaign, it is that it needs to do a better job of making the case across party lines through all sections of the state for a Perdue governship. Indeed, Bev Perdue would be the first North Carolina governor to have had service in the N.C. General Assembly since Jim Holshouser (1973-1977).

Jack, to all those who have been blessed with the opportunity to attend UNC-Chapel Hill for one academic program or another, you may take for granted just what a remarkable and inspiring experience it can be to be part of a UNC Television Network program or production. But it's really the best of the lot, being on WUNC-TV, and I say that as a fan of some of the great network regional television stations' public affairs programming departments across the state.

In fact, to this aficionado of the great jazz standards of the American musical tradition, UNC Television is like Cole Porter's "You're the Top." It's the Eiffel Tower, the Rock of Gibralter, the Statue of Liberty, the Ocracoke Lighthouse and Grandfather Mountain all in one. Missing a chance to appear on WUNC-TV would be like passing up a chance to be at the last baseball game at Yankee Stadium: you know Babe Ruth might not wink at you if you stayed home.

It would be like turning down a front-row seat to see James Taylor sing in an amphitheater near you.

As one who had one and only one statewide campaign experience in the 1978 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, the chance for this straggly Dukie to land for an hour in the Southern Part of Heaven and bask in the glow of the greater academic traditions of the Lighter Shade of Blue was not only a great personal experience but also, people from New Bern to Blowing Rock would mention it for months and months afterward.

Of course, Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue doesn't need statewide publicity in the fundmanetal sense that other candidates may seek it out, but there is no better forum for her to point out the broad and diverse range of her own state government leadership experiences than on the station which, as it reminds us, connects all regions of North Carolina from the shadows of Tennessee's Lookout Mountain to the borders of the Virginia Tidewater. No, I wouldn't miss the opportunity to be on WUNC-TV if I were running for any statewide office in which the network might wish to host a forum.

For someone who has had this long to think about running for governor and who should be aware of the tough luck encountered in the 2000 governor's race by another promising N.C. lieutenant governor, Dennis Wicker, if anything the Perdue campaign should have "stepped it up" and gone full-throttle with flags waving into the studios of the UNC Television Network.

Missing out on Wednesday's statewide UNC TV forum for governor would be like turning down a chance to sample the delectables in Bill Friday's kitchen on "North Carolina People." Those are simply viddles that you wouldn't want to pass up.

Missing a chance to appear on the UNC statewide network would be like shrugging to the Wright Brothers: "You're going to try to do what at Kitty Hawk? Maybe some other time, but let us know if anything comes out of it."

And that's the main problem with the campaign of this perhaps best-qualified gubernatorial candidate to go before the voters of North Carolina in years: they seem to be playing not to lose rather than going all out to win. They are waging too much of a defensive campaign, bringing up past stresses in the case of a former N.C. House speaker from Mecklenburg County rather than forging ahead, demonstrating what kind of leadership she could provide on Blount Street in Raleigh in the next four years.

I can only imagine the uneasy feeling of being on a newspaper editorial board during a campaign like this one waged by Lt. Gov. Perdue. Every time you get to the point where you and your editorial-writing colleagues are on the berge of resolving: "Okay, let's endorse Perdue for governor as the best possibility for effective and innovative executive leadership," the candidate's campaign makes a decision or conducts some puzzling maneuver that simply makes you want to think about it some more.

It is truly mystifying in my view but perhaps not in the view of others more knowledgeable than I. WRAL might host a gubernatorial forum, and those of us who live in the Raleigh area know just what a high level of broadcast journalism is maintained by the WRAL news department. But out across the state, where they might not know the people of a TV station from Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro or Asheville, they do know what commitment to excellence they are going to get every week of the year on UNC-TV, and if anybody does polling on how many viewers watch these forums, I for one would like to see what the numbers are for Wednesday's event.

So especially at this time of year, with the beautiful weather and the public mood so upbeat, with the fall football season in full swing, this is the one candidate forum that the Democratic standard-bearer for 2008 absolutely should not have passed up, for where else can you be part of the network that North Carolinians follow from Murphy to Mocksville to Manteo?

Jack, missing Wednesday's UNC-TV forum would be like heading home from the Blue Ridge Mountains without picking up some supplies of honey and apple cider. Yes, UNC Television, we may love our national network "news interview shows" from CBS's "Face the Nation," ABC's "This Week," Fox's "Fox News Sunday," NBC's "Meet the Press" and public television "Lehrer News Hour," but when it comes to North Carolina, Cole Porter did say it best: "You're the Top."

David Proctor McKnight