Roy Cooper Visits the White House

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 8:24am

Hey, Roy! Did you think we wouldn't notice? Did you think we would be able to ignore President Barack Obama's shout out? I think somebody was in Washington on business. I know you're a big Tar Heel fan and White House visits don't happen every day, but you're a busy man. There was something going on in Washington you're not telling us.

Come on, Roy. Out with it.

From the White House transcript of the Tar Heel's visit with the President:

THE PRESIDENT: Hello. (Applause.) Well, thank you, everybody. Please have a seat. We're not in the Dean Dome here, you don't need to stay standing the whole time. (Laughter.)

I want to, first of all, just acknowledge that we've got a few special guests in the audience. We've got the outstanding new Senator from North Carolina, Kay Hagan. (Applause.) We've got some outstanding members of the House of Representatives, G.K. Butterfield -- (applause)-- G.K! Brad Miller, Mike McIntyre --(applause) -- with his Tar Heels cap on. And we've also got Mr. Roy Cooper, North Carolina Attorney General, and a Tar Heel alum. (Applause.) Where is Roy? He's over there. As well as Kevin Foy, the Mayor of Chapel Hill. There he is, right over there. (Applause.)

(Emphasis mine)

Um hmm.

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Comments

I imagine somebody brought up the senate race

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 8:25am.

Don't you?

***************************
Vote Democratic, the ass you save may be your own.

Our best chance

Submitted by Paul Falduto on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 8:31am.

I have never been a huge fan of his, but Cooper appears to me to be the best shot we have to take out Burr. If he wants the nomination, I for one hope he has no primary oppostion. I know that lots of folks here are fans of Jim Neal, but there is no way, no way at all he could win a general election.

I am for Roy because his name is out there.

Submitted by HallStyle on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 9:50am.

That is what it will take to get the funds need to topple Burr. Regardless of Burrs numbers in the poles the Republican Party is going to kick out tons of dollars to keep his seat. We have to be equally if not more aggressvie when it comes to fund raising and helping get out the message.

Anthony D. Hall,

Fighting for Truth, Justice, Freedom and the American Way!

He can raise the cash

Submitted by UNCW2000 on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 3:56pm.

Cooper will also have a lot of Republican support from folks who remember when he was a young legislator in the mid-90's. (campaigning to elect the first REP speaker of the house in 100+ years)

no, that's not right

Submitted by jusayin on Tue, 05/12/2009 - 11:54pm.

Coming out of lurking to say I for one would be thrilled to see Cooper getting into this race. He is solid and smart, and gets things done.
When I knew him well he was in the legislature, but he never campaigned for an R speaker. In the 90s he was in the Senate. And the Dem majority leader at that.

Maveritic 20

Submitted by THE MODERATE on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 9:10am.

What the writer is speaking of is was his vote as a memeber of the state house when he was one of 20 Democrats to vote against the party's pick for house speaker and support Joe Maveretic, a conservative Democrat, who was supported by all but one GOP house member. When Dan Blue became speaker Cooper lost all of his power, but the death of Sen Ezzell in 1991 allowed Cooper to be appointed to the state Senate. Once a Senator, Cooper found his views fit very well into that of Marc Basnights and he became a leader in the party. Has he stayed in the house who knows what may have happened though.

THE MODERATE and I don't always agree

Submitted by usernamehere on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 9:49am.

but this is correct.

Cooper betrayed his colleagues; looked some of his fellow legislators square in the eye and lied to them about leadership voting.

Several Mavretic Democrats (including Mavretic himself) did that, and lost their credibility with their colleagues when they did.

That type of thing was/is just not done.

Tony Rand

Submitted by Lovex7 on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 7:06am.

I though Tony Rand had been the majority leader for at least 50 years.

Lovex7

What really happened

Submitted by TrooDem on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 11:20am.

That's not quite right, MODERATE. Cooper did join Republicans and 20 other Dems to oust long time Speaker Ramsey and replace him with another Dem because the process needed to be more open. He met with Speaker Ramsey before hand and told him what he was going to do. In the next Speaker race, Cooper was an early and strong supporter of Dan Blue, helping him to become the first African American Speaker. He would have had a high position of leadership with Speaker Blue, however, he chose to move over to the Senate when Senator Jim Ezzell died on the first day of Session.

thanks for the correction

Submitted by UNCW2000 on Wed, 05/13/2009 - 11:25am.

Guess that I was off by a few years. Sorry about that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liston_B._Ramsey

I feel that if Cooper runs unopposed in the primary, he should be golden to beat Burr.

But if he is contested by a decent opponent in the primary, there could be some issues with support.

Either way, we need to kick Burr out next November.

stopping by to say..

Submitted by Linda on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 12:36am.

I think Cooper would win a contested primary handily. He's already won 2 statewide elections, and has a great record as attorney general. I'm not sure who could run against him. Of course, the primaries are - thank god - a year away.

miss you guys.

If you really missed us you'd visit more often...hmph

Submitted by Betsy Muse on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 6:43am.

Roy will have competition if he chooses to run and you're right - he will win handily. Miss you too.