Mayberry-style progressive takes on arch conservative

[claypool4prez]

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By 8 p.m. the Obama faithful had begun to fill the 411 club, a swanky lounge next door to the Marriott hotel in downtown Winston-Salem, for the Democratic nominee’s acceptance speech.
The take from the door was going to Roy Carter, a former high school teacher and football coach challenging Republican incumbent Virginia Foxx for the 5 th Congressional District seat, but Obama volunteers were handing out stickers at the door and Tilden Hagan, son of the Democratic candidate for Senate, was chatting with visitors nearby. Many of the attendees, including teacher’s aide Rhett Butler, a registered Democrat, and Adam Casey, a 26-year-old cartoonist registered as an independent, admitted only a passing familiarity with Carter.

When he strode into the club after arriving from the grand opening of the Stokes County Democratic headquarters, the 64-year-old Carter looked like a beefy version of Andy Griffith, silvery hair glistening in the soft light of the lounge.






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Moments after Carter took the microphone the crowd was whistling and hollering, drowning his lines in applause.

“This is the most historic election, as we all know, in the whole history of the United States,” he said. “Who would have thought just four or five years ago that a rural country boy, ex-schoolteacher/football coach could be in this position, running proudly with Barack Obama?” His speaking voice evoked a little bit of former Sen. John Edwards’ populist cadence, but without the suburban sheen. It reached back to an earlier age, taking on the thundering, brawling quality exemplified by depression-era Louisiana Gov. Huey Long. He was every bit the rural woodworking teacher and gridiron coach, assuming the tone of a man accustomed to threatening, inspiring and humoring his charges to hold their attention.
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The Carter campaign also trumpets the candidate’s runner-up status in Democracy For America’s “Grassroots All-Star Competition” in February. The competition hosted by Democracy For America, an organization founded by former presidential candidate and current Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, measures candidates’ grassroots support by tallying online votes. Carter’s campaign finance records also reflect interest from outside the district, in the form of a $2,300 check from Mississippi author John Grisham and twice that amount from Los Angeles writer and producer Joseph Burnett

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On the issues, the candidates could not be more different. Foxx cosponsored a congressional resolution in March supporting “the idea that the Iraq war is not lost” and endorsing the military escalation that began in 2007. “Roy Carter was opposed to the war in Iraq from the very beginning,” Eller said. “He does not believe that spending $400 million a day in Iraq building their hospitals and their roads while they have a multi-million-dollar surplus is a good investment for the United States while we are seeing our gas prices go up, our grocery prices go up, and unfortunately some of our veterans hospitals go into decline.”

[claypool4prez]

1. This

This is the type of guy we need.

He's not a bluedog. He's a true progressive running in the South. That's some real change right there.


www.roycarterforcongress.com