Fred Smith Summer Celebration Blogger's Press Conference

As a part of his annual Summer Celebration, Senator Fred Smith held a North Carolina Bloggers Press Conference so that he and country super star Lee Greenwood could talk with representatives of this new form of media and answer our questions.

The Press Conference was held in the living room in Fred's house beside the Riverwood Golf Club after the conclusion of the golf tournament that was the focal point of most of the day's festivities. That was for fun. However this is about politics and the day's events started to focus on serious things with the start of the press conference.




Attendees at this years conference included a great number of talented bloggers:

Bob Owens, the "Confederate Yankee",
http://www.confederateyankee.mu.nu, who can be reached by email at confederateyankee@gmail.com.

Scott Elliott and his wife Leia, of "Election Projection"
http://www.electionprojection.com, who can be reached by email at thebloggingcaesar@electionprojection.com.

Rob Boyce accompanied by friend Vicky Brown, who blogs under his own name at http://robboyce.com/blog/ and can be reached by email at rob@robboyce.com.

Jameson T. Taylor and his wife Jennifer, Red Clay Citizen (the Civitas Institute blog) http://redclaycitizen.typepad.com/redclay/, who can be reached by email at jamesont@jwpcivitasinstitute.org.

Sarah (does not use her last name on her blog), "Trying to Grok" (obviously a Robert Heinlein fan),
http://tryingtogrok.mu.nu/, who can be reached by email at
tryingtogrok@hotmail.com.

Brandon Winters, "The Conservative Voice",
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/ who can be reached by email at
Brandon@tcvmedia.com.

And of course yours truly, Dean Stephens, the "Inner Banks Eagle", http://innerbanks.blogspot.com/, who can be reached by email at
deanstephens@asllabs.net.

I have checked as of 24 hours after the event and other than one mention about attending the event there is as yet no blog coverage from attendees. Hope we get some coverage over time. Last year Frank Williams and Nathan Tabor were up with their coverage on the same day. A google search did find a blog entry about the previous night's Fred Smith BBQ event in Hendersonville which you can reach by clicking here. It also turned up a couple of real news articles about the BBQ event in the Hendersonville News here and Blue Ridge Now here.

The most interesting question you could ask at the bloggers conference was why Lee Greenwood had chosen to support Senator Smith in his quest to become Governor of the State of North Carolina. However that was not the first question asked. The first question asked was how Senator Smith felt about the education lottery. As Senator Smith noted in his answer, the question is sort of moot. The Lottery was passed and though the blogger who asked the questions may think the lottery is wrong, it isn't an issue that is at the forefront of the issues in this campaign because there is no realistic way to undo the law.




Luckily one blogger finally asked the question everyone wanted to know. Lee's answer was great. He had met Senator Fred Smith through a mutual friend who was a great fan. After Lee got to know Fred he said that he had never met anyone who he felt was more dedicated to helping make the future better. Lee believed he had an obligation to help him succeed. The level of support indicated in his answer by this man many call America's greatest patriot was simply awesome.

Senator Smith got a couple of additional questions that allowed him to talk about his concerns and campaign themes covered on his web site. You can click on the title above or here to read his positions. Most of the answers were typical Fred Smith, straight forward and honest. One of the other bloggers commented after the press conference was over that he was surprised at how open Senator Smith is. This was his first conference with Senator Smith or he would not have been surprised.

[Update: A good question about immigration and agriculture was asked and is covered well by Jameson of Red Clay Citizen. See link below.]

Last years event was equally interesting since it included the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. Perry is not a country super star but an impressive man and he too is supporting Fred Smith for Governor. You can check out last years Bloggers Press Conference by clicking the link here.

I will update this posting as soon as some of the other bloggers have weighed in.



Update at 6:12 PM . . . . I just got a notice from Lorie Byrd about a posting here by Red Clay Citizen talking about Fred's positions on immigrant labor in agriculture. Excellent job Jameson.

Update at 9:15 PM . . . . I just checked the various blogs represented at the press conference and found a posting here by Rob Boyce.

Update at 10:07 AM Friday morning . . . . . posting here by Scott Elliot of Election Projection. Check it out. It is clear we have gained another Fred Smith supporter.

Update at 11:30 AM Friday morning . . . . . posting here by Sarah of "Trying to grok". Check it out. She has an interesting perspective.