Saturday's Internet Edition, 5:11 PM, May 10, 2008.
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Reagan spoke from the back of a flatbed trailer to a collection of very impressed Rowan County Republicans.
North Carolina resurrected Reagan’s campaign, and he gave Ford a fight down to the wire that year. He didn’t win the nomination, but he lost so gloriously that he guaranteed himself as the front-runner in 1980.
That’s one of the few times North Carolina’s primary held a pivotal place in presidential politics, until this week. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama have battled nose-to-nose across the state in the past two weeks in a furious attempt to lock up the Democratic nomination.
President Clinton made appearances for his wife in a host of small towns across the state, but he missed us. So did Obama. There may not have been enough Democrats here.
We have many times looked at all the attention lavished on Iowa and New Hampshire every four years during the presidential campaigns. Those states are the traditional early battlegrounds.
For us, two weeks of the fun was enough. We no longer begrudge the early states’ their place in line. Their citizens have to endure a dozen or more candidates who camp out for months in the cold. It was nice to be noticed; nice to be significant. But it was nicer to see the weary candidates move on.
Pre-election Promises, Addition Problems
By the time this week’s edition of the newspaper hits the streets, Davie County’s primary elections will be history. The newspaper received many letters about the races and a number of advertisements. We are always grateful for both.
As usual, the candidates issued a number of pre-election promises. The editor’s favorite was one by school board candidate Brent Ward, who promised he will “never attend a school board meeting held at a private residence.”
We hope the entire school board will make a similar pledge to steer clear of Bermuda Run garages and out-of-county law offices.
Only in Davie County has that been a problem. The board has a proper meeting place.
An advertisement in last week’s issue apparently had some misinformation. The ad listed and criticized the people who made the largest financial contributions to the political action group Davie Citizens for a Responsible Government. The ad criticized them for an attempt to buy the courthouse and the school system.
The ad’s aim was fair but inaccurate. The citizens group is certainly fair game, but, as usual, the devil is in the details. The ad listed the contributions but accidentally multiplied them - by two. Also, most of the contributions were given during the campaign against the school bond referendum and had nothing to do with the commissioners race. Those contributors can justly feel maligned.
An old fashioned apology would be in order.
Liberation Day For A POW
On this day in history - May 8, 1945, Harold Frank was liberated from a German prisoner of war camp, ending 11 months of confinement after he had been wounded and captured by the enemy during Gen. George Patton’s Third Army trek across Germany.
Frank, now 84, eventually returned to his Davidson County home and worked at Dixie Furniture. There, he noticed this pretty young Davie girl, Reba McDaniel. They were soon to marry and make their home on Cornatzer Road, raising three boys, Eddie, Danny and Randy.
Eddie recalled that his father’s shoulder troubled him years after the war. A physician found an old bullet fragment still embedded there.
There were about 16 million soldiers involved in that war, making the current Iraqi war seem like a mere inconvenience by comparison. The aging veterans are quickly departing the scene, but Frank and others are reminders of a generation that paid a mighty price for freedom.
“I love you, Daddy,” son Eddie said this week.
We all owe that generation our eternal respect and gratitude.
— Dwight Sparks
