Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham is not a candidate for U.S. Senate. Not yet. Really.
On Aug. 29, Cunningham spoke to a meeting of state Democrats in Charlotte about why he is "looking at" challenging Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican next year.
Dome thinks his talk sounds an awful lot like a first-draft stump speech. Video of his remarks was distributed by a group trying to build support for Cunningham. Dome has edited the clip down to a few snippets.
Kenneth Lewis has declared his candidacy. Other possible candidates include Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge and former Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker have been courted and aren't saying "no" yet.
Comments
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 3, 2009 - 9:10am — alchemistoxfordIt is clear that Cal Cunningham has charisma. While his joke might be slightly stale, he delivered it with panache. Cunningham is a superb communicator -- and will be a formidable political adversary for Burr. I would like to see more coverage of Cal Cunningham -- NC needs to have a Senator instead of a corporate puppet like Richard Burr, a political non-entity if ever there were one who had the unmitigated gall to campaign against health care arm-in-arm with John McCain and Mitch McConnell. McCain selected Sarah Palin as his VP and called for 100 more years of US occupation of Iraq, while McConnell has no respect for the rights of women and boasts a perfect voting record in support of George W. Bush's neocon wars. With allies like those, Burr will go down in flames.
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 3, 2009 - 8:57am — Isaac136Bulldoc and Tomarken are correct. Cal Cunningham has a fresh face and a good attitude. However, he needs to quit waiting to be blessed by the party and step up the momentum (or BUILD some) for his campaign.
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 2, 2009 - 10:24pm — TomarkenI agree with bullydoc. I saw that speech. The UtD post focused on the zingers, but the most important parts of Cal's speech focused on the voices of NC. He seems to be really listening to what is happening across the state and truly wants to run a campaign if he is 100% sure he can win. So what if folks are already pumping him up while he takes some time to hone a message, set up an infrastructure and make important connections.
This guy is clearly smart, interested and interesting. I look forward to finding out more about him and where he stands. In the meantime, I'm happy to picture Burr's head on a little turtle body. Don't care if it's an old joke - so long as it's accurate. I think he'll be a tough fighter and a great US Senator come November 2010.
Cal Cunningham
September 2, 2009 - 10:34pm — BullydocIn addition to some good laugh lines, Cunningham is really showing that he is listening to the voices of the people of North Carolina and carefully thinking through the issues as he considers entering the race. He has been keeping a blog during his listening tour. It's updated often and is well worth bookmarking.
His wikipedia page includes a lot of useful background as well.
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 2, 2009 - 7:35pm — policyhoundMain Entry: po·seur
Pronunciation: \pō-ˈzər, ˈpō-zər\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, poser, from poser
Date: 1869
: a person who pretends to be what he or she is not : an affected or insincere person
Now if he's not an original poser I don't know what is.
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 2, 2009 - 6:44pm — GiggleBox"Poser" is spelled poseur, policy hound. Do you get how funny that is?
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 2, 2009 - 6:36pm — policyhoundhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vM71uSxBhhc
Exact same words. What a shame that Cunningham is a poser.
Re: Cunningham, not a candidate yet, stumps
September 2, 2009 - 6:30pm — policyhoundhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oBVpJYNyrg
Cunningham should have used a fresher joke.