Perdue states the obvious
Sometimes in politics, a bunch of people stand around and wait for someone to say the blazingly obvious. Monday night in New Bern was one of those nights.
Lt. Gov. Beverly, pardon me, Bev Perdue announced she was running for governor in 2008.
Click here to listen to say that and other things. It's about a 13 minute MP3 file.
This was the view from toward the back of the room when Perdue came on stage (Click to enlarge.):
Others, like the Charlotte paper's Mark Johnson, have offered up a more detailed view of the evening.
For the moment, I'll only offer up a few observations:
- * Over at the Tavern, my friend Laura Leslie suggested that Perdue might be running away from her history as a teacher, perhaps under pressure from some whispering from Richard Moore's campaign. Third item in Sunday's post.
She didn't seem to be running from her teaching background Monday night.
"As someone who has worked as a public school teacher," Perdue said in the second paragraph of her speech. "and chaired the Senate's education committee, I'm prepared to continue moving our public schools forward."
Perdue spent more than half her speech talking about education.
- * "Because in order to compete in the 21st century, North Carolina must have the best educated workforce in the world," Perdue said.
This sounds like a line cribbed directly from sitting Gov. Mike Easley, as did her call to guarantee that "money will not be a roadblock to getting a college degree or gaining the skills they need to compete in the 21st century."
Easley road that dual theme of education and competing in the new world economy to re-election in 2004 and it sounds like Perdue is ready to ride the same horse.
- * Moore has already rolled out a healthcare proposal. Although she didn't give details, Perdue used part of her opening speech to engage the same territory.
"...but I believe the best way, the very best way, to cover all of North Carolina's kids is to make health care affordable for all of North Carolina's families."
If the battle between Moore and Perdue evolves beyond credentials and personality, healthcare could be a serious policy battleground in the primary.
Ambiance-wise, there were at least a couple hundred folks (probably more) jamming the room. Most were local to New Bern and most were in full voice cheering for Perdue. 'Cue was served, eastern style due to the location. A few members of the General Assembly were on hand, including Rep. William Wainwright, who delivered the evenings invocation, and Sen. Bill Purcell, who mingled with the crowd. All in all, your typical campaign kick off, although probably exactly what Perdue's campaign staff was hoping for.