What's the story with Mike Easley?

[Crankie Avalon]

A Democratic reelected Governor of a southern state? Why isn't he an "early frontrunner" for the nomination in 08?

Is he pretty good on the issues? He's not a Lieberman or Zell Miller-type, is he?

[mmonk]

1. He's not the courageous type

to take on and promote the truth IMO.

[Crankie Avalon]

3. Too bad...

...I just saw a news feature on him. It didn't give any sense of his stances, it just focused on how he "connects with the King of the Hill voter" (they actually used that phrase "King of the Hill voter") by being "a Democrat who doesn't talk down" to rural folks, etc. I think I saw this on CNN, for whatever that might be worth.

[NewJeffCT]

6. I think the NY Times had a similar article on him a while back

They also focused on the "King of the Hill" aspect, too. He handily won re-election in a red state that was called for Bush pretty early on election night.

[Kelvin Mace]

2. You don't want Easley

A Vichy Dem.

[Crankie Avalon]

4. Guess I need to do a better job of keeping up...

...does that mean he's a Dem far to the right of Bill Clinton, say?

[MADem]

5. I would not be surprised if the Southern Paradigm takes a hit in 08

And we revert back to a Northerner at the top of the ticket, and maybe a westerner with hispanic background in the number two slot (say, Bill Richardson???). The way things are going, the GOP might just stay home in 08. They aren't doing too well running things right now....

As for Easley, no offense, but most people would say "Who the fuck is Mike Easley?" He has no presence on the national stage, at least not yet.

[Crankie Avalon]

7. I'm one of those "most people." I don't know who he is, that why I'm...

...asking.

A southern Democratic Governor sounds so tempting on the surface, though...Carter and Clinton were the last two Dem presidents, and they were both southern Governors. Really, the last three Dem presidents were southern politicians, if you broaden it out to Johnson (a Senator and VP), as well.

[NewJeffCT]

8. In 1999 at this time

People would say, "Who the fuck is Bill Clinton?" And, even during the primary process there were questions as to whether the governor of a small, poor Southern state could win. North Carolina is a bigger Southern state with more wealth than Arkansas.

[MADem]

11. Bill Clinton was tapped as a "One to Watch"

back in 1979--being the youngest governor helped, too. He got three paragraphs in NEWSWEEK and was the top listed guy as "future presidential timber"--to be honest, that small article was my first introduction to him, and I remembered it all those years later. He had a great network in the Gov's Council. Also, Bill had personality....

[Mel]

9. I live in NC and Easley can forget about it!

Here's the 'icing on the cake' for me he refuses to do the right thing when he made a mistake. I don't give a darn if a D is behind his name.
Easley has no honor, no courage, and lacks character!


Easley pardons wrongfully convicted NC man, denies second pardon
August 18, 2005
RALEIGH, N.C. --In two cases involving wrongfully convicted rape suspects who spent two decades in prison, Gov. Mike Easley refused to pardon a man he put behind bars but cleared the record of another man after a new suspect was indicted. </snip>
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/08/18/easley_pardons_wrongfully_convicted_nc_man_denies_second_pardon/

[mmonk]

10. Yes,

he's always concerned with his image around conservatives. He's someone who isn't necessarily rightwing, but is afraid of the word liberal and would never use the word neocon (unlike someone who doesn't mind either word like a Wes Clark). I live in Raleigh and attend the same church he does (my son and his son were in CCD classes together). But I prefer someone who will confront realities strongly and head on without worry.

[Crankie Avalon]

12. Well, that definitely reflects badly on him...

...it reminded me a little of Bill Clinton and Ricky Ray Rector, though, I guess because they are both instances of a guy trying to show he's a "law and order" Governor.

How did you feel at the time about Clinton, by the way, when he made a point of interrupting his '92 campaign for president to come home to Arkansas and oversee the execution of a retarded man?

Just asking for curiosity's sake, not trying to "excuse" Easley in any way with the ol' "someone else did something bad, too," defense.

[Mel]

17. did not agree with Clinton

did not vote for him the first time, did the second.
One of the main reasons was because of the right wing attacks on Clinton, Dole was no option for me I run further to the left than Clinton. I was able to see the right-wings MO before Brock fessed up and I was damn sick of it!
I will tell you this (hope I don't get flamed) I almost voted Nader the second time around but the right-wing had pissed me off so bad with their behavior there was no way I was going to let them get away with it by voting Nader. So, I cast my vote for Clinton however I was mad at him too just not enough to cut my own throat.

From a sense of pure political strategy Easley doesn't have what Clinton had and that's charisma not that I'm saying that's what I base my vote on it's the content of character more than anything else I admit it I held my nose when I voted for Clinton that second time of course no one human is pure and I would take him back in a New York second if it would mean Bush* would be gone!
Easley is milk toast to me even if he didn't do what I posted above in post # 9 I just don't think he has what it takes to run for President and win he's b-o-r-i-n-g!

[wishlist]

13. More of an administrator than a politician- very low key and not ambitious

He keeps such a low profile that it is hard to judge how he stands or how committed he really is on some key Democratic issues.

This article (on his own website!) does a good job of describing why he has been nicknamed :

'The ghost'

Easley's most visible departure from the patterns of past governors is that he regularly skips big events that others expect him to attend. Such absences have ruffled political insiders and left some less willing to help him get things done.
But Easley's public profile also worries the governor's own allies, who say he has missed too many chances to promote the agenda he claims so passionately to be fighting for.

Easley's schedule speaks for itself. Every Thursday or Friday, his press office issues his plans for the following week. One hundred such schedules have been published since his 2001 inauguration. Thirty-one have been blank.

Consider these absences:

On March 8, 2002, Easley skipped the annual conference of the North Carolina Association of Educators.

Also March 8, he missed the memorial for the first soldier from North Carolina killed in Afghanistan.

He was absent from the funerals of two lawmakers who died in office: state Sen. Luther Jordan, a Democrat from Wilmington, and state Rep. Larry Justus, a Republican from Hendersonville.

He missed the annual meeting of the state NAACP, and the annual banquet of the General Baptist State Convention.

He skipped the Wright Brothers centennial kickoff ceremony in Kill Devil Hills on Dec 17.

And his most glaring absence was on Nov. 5, when North Carolina Democrats gathered at the North Raleigh Hilton to celebrate its few election night victories and console its headliner, U.S. Senate candidate Erskine Bowles, on his loss to Republican Elizabeth Dole.

Even those sympathetic to the bewildering schedule demands placed on a sitting governor say this one seems particularly hard to find.

http://www.mikeeasley.org/pages/pgs_profiles/prof_lowprofile.htm

[mmonk]

14. I don't see why

not attenting the Baptist convention should be held against him. The others would seem to bring forth a lack of courage on his part though.

[Crankie Avalon]

15. Sounds like even if he won the nomination...

...he might not show up for the convention. :silly:

[mmonk]

16. Might be afraid what

the press might say about him.

[jmowreader]

18. Mike Easley is a Southern Democrat

Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans are on the same ideological level: somewhat conservative but not overwhelmingly so. I consider him somewhat to the right of Bill Clinton, who was the finest Republican president we have had since Theodore Roosevelt.

Easley's pet issue is the Lottery. We're the only state on the eastern seaboard that doesn't have one. (We were also the last state in America to give the governor the veto. Yes, we are a bit behind the times here.) Easley believes we should have one. And if we could keep the fucking fundamentalists out of this, we could get one.

I think he's a decent governor but he shouldn't go any higher than that.