On the Ground in North Carolina
Last week we went down to North Carolina to find out how people in that crucial state feel about Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and being the focus of the national media.
During our forty-five minute lay-over at Charlotte’s Douglas Airport, we spoke with people of all races, ages, and height.
At “The Official NASCAR Gift Shop,” a young Caucasian woman named Sally was neatly stacking hats. Was she one of the many Democratic voters shifting to Clinton after Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s much publicized comments in Washington DC? We may never know, as another customer got to her first and asked about the price of a t-shirt.
All we could do was slip a Dale Earnhardt shot glass into our pocket.
Across the way, Gladys, a middle aged African-American woman was working the cash register at “Carolina Gifts.” “That will be four dollars and fifty cents,” she told a gentleman buying some postcards and a key chain, as we put a Snickers bar down our sleeve and quickly walked out of the store with purpose, looking (and this is key) straight ahead.
We made our way to a food court area in search of the all important blue collar voter. At “The News Connection” we spotted two white men in work clothes, their bulk provided the perfect screen for us to quickly shove a copy of Esquire down our pants.
Finally, we made a stop the Great American Bagel, where most of the food is behind a glass partition. We asked a cashier with an impossible to spell name how she felt about Tuesday’s primary, she laughed and told us, “I don’t know.”
Done. Slam dunk!
It’s not easy to do this kind of reporting from the field, so we rewarded ourselves with an everything bagel, and cranberry juice that for some reason tasted extra good (wink).
