Does it matter?
So over the weekend, the folks over at Blue NC did an online Q & A this weekend with Jim Neal, the Chapel Hill investment banker and Democrat who plans to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole next year.
During that Q & A, Neal was asked if he was gay, and he confirmed that he was.
Dome noted the exchange this morning.
Now, just a minute ago, AP moved a news alert on the matter:
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) - A spokesman for Jim Neal, the Democrat who plans to challenge Sen. Elizabeth Dole, has confirmed that Neal is gay.
The thing about AP news alerts is they're usually about things that the wire service think will change and dictate coverage plans, and as the name implies, they're usually matters of some urgency.
Now, I may be sleepy after working Saturday and Sunday, but is this really a "release the hounds" moment? I don't know that Neal being gay was a huge secret. Someone mentioned it to me on on municipal primary night.
I'm otherwise engaged today, but Neal is scheduled to drop my offices for an interview on Tuesday. I guess we'll have 24 hours of news cycle to reflect on when he does.
I'll put it to you in the mean time: in this day and age, does it matter here in North Carolina whether a candidate for office is gay?
The only real good yardstick I have to measure is the General Assembly's behavior on the topic. Republicans there seem to think the issue of gay marriage specifically and the more general social topic of homosexuality plays to their favor and have done their best to push bills like a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. Legislative Democrats have simply refused to take up the issue or confront it in a meaningful way, relying on Speaker Hackney to big-foot the a gay marriage bill into oblivion this year. Obviously, there's some political calculus being tallied on both sides and one wonders how that translates into the Senate race.
Apart from this issue, what else would you ask Neal if you had the chance?
Comments (7)
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Mark: I'm not sure if it matters, but a majority of the state house *sponsored* the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. It was Hackney alone who would not let the bill come to the floor for a vote.
I don't think a person's lifestyle choice matters in terms of their desire to run for office. I do think their stance on specific policy matters matters.
Posted on October 22, 2007 10:37 AM
I totally agree...does it really matter?
Are people are so initimidated, that a gay person can be public servant, too?
Gee, at least he wasn't in a restroom stall, or
luring kids on the internet, and paging pages in
our Congressional halls.
Wake up people! So what if Neal is gay!
This is going to be an exciting election. In the sense, that Dole always prides herself as a person who wanted to "clean up" the mess in
Washington. Well, using a dustbuster ain't the answer.
Now let's see how a gay person really "cleans" a
mess up. Might be a change for the better!
Posted on October 22, 2007 11:30 AM
Mark,
I don't think the fact that Jim Neal is gay makes much difference to most folks with a functioning brain and an ounce of common sense. It does seem to matter a lot to Republicans for some reason.
I didn't agree necessarily with Anglico that the corporate media should have covered that as news, but the fact that the candidate for Senate gave a real time, online, personal Q&A to the public at BlueNC is pretty big news. This is something that will not happen at the CharO, N&O, N&R or any other major newspaper in the state.
Is this newsworthy enough for print? I guess it depends on what else there is to report. I'd much rather be mentioned in your blog than in a print article.
Posted on October 22, 2007 3:42 PM
Ah...Geez...now it looks like Ima kissing up to you. Heh. Traditionally, bloggers have linked to other blogs to bring more attention to a story and give credit for that story. I was just sayin'........
Posted on October 22, 2007 3:51 PM
Well, if it'll help your cred, you can fuss at me for something as well.
I've only seen Anglico's post in my newsreader so I haven't thought about it in depth. I can think of a number of reasons why papers wouldn't have run a story on the online Q+A, but can only speak for myself.
I already had an interview scheduled for tomorrow, and have publications plans for that. Because I get limited space for writing about any one topic, I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by writing something that may end up being repetitive.
The other thing, and this is just be me, but the real-time live interview thing is not so big of a geeze-wizbang thing for me these days. Lots of people do them in lots of different context. And while it's great the candidates are willing to do them with y'all, the medium really isn't the message, no matter what Marshall McLuhan may have said.
I'm more interested in the content it produces in the end. And definitely the BlueNC material is interesting and will help me craft some of my own questions.
Besides...do you really want me writing a summary of what people could equally well go to your site and look through for themselves?
But I could be wrong.
Posted on October 22, 2007 4:05 PM
but the real-time live interview thing is not so big of a geeze-wizbang thing for me these days.* Mark
Good for you! Bill Mahar found that out Friday nite after challenging the amazing Truth 9/11 movement. Poor Bill, he had no idea that live interviews tend to go south if the wrong questions were ask.
BlueNC is no doubt not the true Liberal, Conservative paradiam site in this state that the mainstream establishment media would hope for since, they get clobber with information that neither the establishment media would touch in a century.
Good for them!
Posted on October 22, 2007 10:48 PM
Can somebody get Connie a proofreader?
Posted on October 23, 2007 4:52 PM