Breaking: Pat McCrory wants to spend millions on more government programs!

How stupid does Myers Park Pat think North Carolina is? Judging from his comments in Kinston last week, the answer is: Pretty damn stupid.

Seriously, it looks like ol' Pat has truly slid off the deep end with more political pandering than you can shake a stick at. Besides promising to hand the keys to the governor's office to his pals at Duke Energy, McCrory wants to crank up the tax machine so he can pump millions into government programs for coastal communities:

Part of his solution (to the energy crisis) includes off-shore drilling, an issue he and his Democratic opponent Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue differ on. Perdue has said she wouldn't allow off-shore drilling if she is elected in November. McCrory said he would take part of the millions of dollars generated by the drilling and put it back into coastal communities to help with their particular concerns, such as dredging and infrastructure.

But that's just the beginning. He also wants to give more and more money to burnish his law 'n' order credentials, sucking up just like Liddy Dole to whatever sheriff will listen to him:

The Charlotte mayor also noted the problems faced by law enforcement all across the state and especially in Eastern North Carolina. He said gangs are a major concern for police and sheriff's deputies, along with the state of the court system. "Your sheriffs are overwhelmed because of a broken criminal justice system," McCrory said.

And of course you already know why that's important.

This makes it difficult to bring businesses into the state, he said, especially when there are visible signs of criminal activity, such as bars on windows.

Yikes! Will somebody PLEASE tell Site Selection magazine that they screwed up by ranking North Carolina number 1 for business in six out of the past seven years.

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The way I see it, McCrory knows his campaign is going nowhere fast, which means he's willing to say almost anything to almost anybody in order to gain some traction. Just like clueless John McCain. He started out behind, he's stuck in low gear, and the only thing he can offer is the promise of more spending on more government programs? Holy mackerel, Pat. You need to get some new advisers. Them there's liberal talking points.

And speaking of liberal, McCrory's closing shot could very well be the joke of the week:

McCrory, who has been spending significant time in the eastern part of the state in the past couple weeks, said there's no reason why east of I-95 has to continue to be Democrats' territory. "It is a Democratic stronghold," he said. "But I believe the leaders of the state Democratic Party have swerved far left."

Swerved far left? The NC Democratic Party? Damn. I must have missed that.

Too bad Fred Smith didn't win the Republican primary. At least he stood for something you could count on and gave away good North Carolina barbecue to get votes. Pat could barely get a dozen people to show up to his party.