Pat McCrory just can’t help himself. He has to get in the last word. This time, he’s written a letter explaining–and defending–his actions that resulted in a cook being fired from a Charlotte restaurant.
McCrory needs to learn when to drop the story. The whole thing was truly a tempest in a teapot except that McCrory and his people won’t let it go. If they had shut up, it would be over by now. Instead, the governor is just reinforcing the perception that he’s thin-skinned.
And since he wants to keep talking about it, I’m game. Let’s dissect the letter. It really does give a lot of insight into McCrory’s view of the world and how little he understands about the political dialogue.
He starts out by letting us know that the cook shot him the bird. Ok, so the guy’s an asshole and McCrory is just an innocent victim of crude behavior. It’s a theme we see a lot in this governor–McCrory the victim vs. the uncouth meanies.
Next, McCrory just shook it off. No big deal. Comes with the territory. Yeah, right. That’s just not believable. Otherwise, why would the governor be writing a letter to the largest newspaper in the state a week after it happened? It obviously got under his skin in a big way and he’s still not over it.
Then he shifts to finger-wagging at the press for covering the incident in the first place and not focusing on the “majority of employees from the public and private sectors who every day care for and treat people with respect, customer service and dignity.” Two things are apparent here. McCrory thinks the story was about the cook. It wasn’t. It was about McCrory. Second, for better or worse, the press doesn’t cover dog-bites-man stories. They cover stories that get attention. A man getting fired for mouthing off at the governor is a story. And it would have been a short one if the governor had handled it better.
Finally, McCrory gets back to his theme of civility. He still doesn’t understand the political environment. He signed into law bills that targeted minorities and young people to keep them from voting. His party pushed a ban on marriage equality that clearly and indisputably discriminates against gay people. And he lied when he promised that he would not sign bills reducing access to abortion. And now he wants to say, “No hard feelings”? That’s not the way the world works.
Instead of putting the matter to rest, the letter properly defines McCrory. He’s a thin-skinned governor who sees himself as a hapless victim of an irresponsible press and who is trying to rise above the fray while restoring civility to the public debate. The first part is self-pity. The second is pure fantasy.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
Before McCrory was elected, I commented, as a long-time former Charlottean, that his stint as mayor of Charlotte was not a guarantee (or even much of a suggestion) that he had the experience and savvy he would need as governor. Charlotte is governed by a city manager and a city council: the position of mayor is primarily that of a good-will ambassador and/or cheerleader. I also suggested that McCrory’s opponent run on the slogan “more than just a pretty face”. At this point, even the face isn’t looking all that good.
The original protest that McCrory and his minions culled comments from to smear Drew Swope out of context has been rescheduled https://www.facebook.com/events/203442736532080/
Join us if you can.
Great response to #onetermPat McCrory thin skin approach to Governing in NC. It’s really sad that the GOP has swept in drastic change to our modern state. NC was once a state that would bring unity to it’s citizens. I now see a divided state and people. It was divided by a political party hell bent on staying in power. Not staying in power by leadership. Leaders that I respect rule with humility and passion. All I see in Raleigh are a bunch of whiners. Takers and politicians who allow outside influence from Big Money. It’s a real shame that politicians ran for office to serve the people who elected them. Only to serve the agenda of those with deep pockets.
We had a school superintendent in WS/FC in the ’90’s whose face reminds me of McCrory’s, always a “smile” on his face, but if you separate the mouth from the eyes? It’s a GRIMACE, not a smile, from years of forced fake expression. He was as big a two-faced a-hole as I had worked for in 15 years. Now we have this jerk only worse, because he covers the whole state, not just a school system – bought and paid for by Pope/Duke enterprises.
The folks who voted……got what they voted for……. Just wait and sweet times will come and try to again buy your vote…….. The bad thing is some folks will suck the sweet finger again…only to cry cry cry
Drew, didn’t you say in the paper that you did NOT give him the finger?? You DID say Thanks for Nothing but did you give him the finger? BTW – I bought two Thanks for NOthing t-shirts. Awesome!
Don’t know why he would take the time to even talk to the owner about it, can’t be the first time he received the finger. Anyway years ago we had a VP that loved to give folks the finger.
Yeah, if one of my employees behaved that inappropriately to a client, any client, I would have fired him, too. Having said that, there’s nothing more pathetic than a thin-skinned politician.
I’m the guy who got fired, Drew Swope. One of the first things I said was that this is definitely cause for dismissal and I don’t disagree with my boss’ decision. When I’ve been in management I’ve fired people for less and let bigger things than this slide. The real issue is McCrory’s record and the recent disaster of a massive coal ash spill that he’s known about since before he took the
office of Governor.
Thanks for weighing in, Drew. Thanks for manning up, thanks for taking responsibility for your actions, and thanks for giving the governor a much-deserved referendum on his crookedness. Well done!
What Jason said. Thanks for stopping by, Drew.
Drew I am so angry at our Governor right now that I might have done the same thing. You stood up for what you believe in and with the knowledge that you were going to lose your job. We need more back bone in this country.
If you want to move to the beach, I’ll be happy to hire you.
THE CLERK WAS AN INDIVIDUAL THAT FALLS INTO THE “THOM TILLIS CLASS OF WHINERS”.
THOM TILLIS SAYS “THE WHINING IS FROM THE LOSERS”.
HE’S RIGHT, IT IS THE WORKING FOLKS WHO CANNOT
GET SUBSIDIES TO BUY HEALTH INSURANCE AND
THOSE THAT CANNOT QUALIFY UNDER NC MEDICAID.
BUT WHO CARES? NOT TILLIS, MCCRORY, POPE!
Today about 1.5 million North Carolinians are uninsured
nearly 20 percent of the state’s residents. The Medicaid
expansion would have covered about 500,000 of them.
THANK GOD FOR OBAMACARE! AT LEAST SOME
NORTH CAROLINA FOLKS CAN GET ACA INSURANCE.
PS HOW MANY REPUBLICANS GETTING HELP?
I WONDER IF A REPUBLICAN, WHO GOT HEALTH CARE INSURANCE POSSIBLY FOR THE FIRST TI ME IN HIS/HER LIFE, WILL NOW VOTE FOR SOMEONE WHO WILL TAKE THAT CARE AWAY FROM THEM?