by Jim Kouri - CHARLOTTE, NC -- Raleigh News & Observer reporter Rob Christensen's examination of Charlotte, NC Mayor Patrick McCrory's entry into the North Carolina gubernatorial race ("McCrory Whiffs In His First At-Bat," January 20, 2008) could be subtitled, "The Dummy's Guide to Running a Political Campaign."

According to Christensen, McCrory might have made "the worst entry into a political race since  US Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, who spent the first days of his  presidential campaign explaining how he didn't mean to be patronizing when he  described Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as articulate and clean."  By the way, according to talk show host and former Reagan Justice Department chief of staff Mark Levin, Biden is the dumbest man in the US Senate.

One example of the McCrory campaign's ineptness was when he announced his candidacy and his campaign staff sent out a press release saying he was  running for "governer." Many of the release's readers probably thought it would have been more encouraging if the McCrory election team knew how to spell the office he was seeking.

What Christensen described next in his article was a bit more serious than a mere spelling error. According to the News & Observer story, "McCrory's campaign manager concocted a story about a  hacker breaking into the McCrory campaign computers and changing the spelling  as a dirty trick. She repeated the story -- even contradicting her own  campaign spokeswoman -- until McCrory ended the agony by acknowledging that the campaign had made a mistake."

Christensen laments the fact that this episode "raises questions about whether McCrory is prepared to make the jump into the political big time."

The Raleigh News & Observer reporter writes: "One reason that four recent Charlotte mayors have  failed to win statewide office is that they had been lulled into the false  view that being mayor is the political major leagues."  

It's  not, says Christensen. He points out that "there is not as much competition among candidates, not as much media  scrutiny nor as much likelihood of hardball politics."  

With  a few exceptions, he points out, Charlotte's mayoral races tend to be polite while races for governor or the US Senate tend to be barroom brawls.