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Tuesday: Talking Points
posted at 2008-10-21 23:19 | Last modified 2008-10-22 09:26
I had the opportunity to talk with would-be Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden tonight. Her husband, Senator Joe Biden, will be in Raleigh Thursday for an appearance at Meredith College. Mrs. Biden was doing advance interviews today. You can hear a (very) minimally-edited version below.
Listen Now!
Unbearable?
Asheville’s Jon Ostendorff reports WCU officials are pleased to report the dead bear cub decorated with Obama signs "appears to be a stupid prank." From the article:
Campus Police Chief Tom Johnson said investigators have talked to some of the suspects – all students – and learned the incident was a prank and was not politically or racially motivated.
He said in the written statement that the students found the dead bear while looking for firewood Saturday night during a camping trip.
“En route to campus, the students took random political signs to put over the bear’s head in an effort to cover the head wound and prevent blood from spilling into the bed of the truck,” the university said in its statement. “The students dumped the bear into the center of the roundabout at the entrance to campus at about 2:40 a.m. Monday, and returned to their apartment.”
WCU spokeswoman Leila Tvedt said the investigation is ongoing.
She said the police chief offered no opinion on why the students would be concerned about blood in the back of the truck after the bear had been there for 24 hours.
Riiiiiight. Everyone knows “random” Obama signs labeled “do not steal” are strewn all over conservative Western NC (unlike, say, McCain signs), which explains why they happened to be the handiest material the students could find to soak up bloodstains from a “found” bear carcass that probably wasn't bleeding anymore by that time, anyway. And perhaps the students were just being considerate by leaving the signs on the bear’s head when they dumped the carcass on campus. I mean, who wants bloodstains in front of the school mascot, right?
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.
Unfortunately for WCU, the non-NC press didn't. The dead bear cub made headlines in the UK and Australia today, and it’s all over the web at Radar, Wonkette , Drudge, and the Huffington Post. You can’t blame school administrators for wanting to deflect all the negative attention -- but to call this a shaggy-dog story would be an insult to shaggy dogs. Here’s hoping WCU leaders expect a little more intellectual rigor from their students than they seem to expect from the rest of us.
At the races
Charlotte’s Jack Betts joined Frank Stasio, Jessica Jones, and me on today’s State of Things show for an hour-long dish session on NC races. If you missed it, it’s here.
Comments? Drop me a line.
