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So anyone that believes that Hagan is not a political heavyweight is a "knee-jerk partisan" and not being objective, Doug? If I was so partisan, then why would I write that Liddy Dole was a carpetbagger and not popular? Dole was a celebrity, and her ego caused her to think that she would just waltz to reelection, even though she never really resided in the state, nor did she really bother with spending enough time with us little people in North Carolina. Come to think of it, the only time she spent time here was when she was campaigning; she lived at the Watergate, for crying out loud.

In your opinion, anyone who believes that Kay Hagan is not a "heavyweight" is wrong. Having lived in her state senate district, it was like pulling teeth getting a response from her office in Raleigh. I understand that that pattern has continued since she was elected to the US Senate; Howard Coble she is not. Did you happen to catch her performance at an appearance at some town hall meeting in Kernersville where some people had the nerve to question her support of the Obama healthcare monstrosity? Unless Kay has her DNC talking points in front of her, she is not good speaking off-the-cuff. All I hear from her is how her "number one priority is jobs,jobs,jobs" and she is going to help "working families" and provide "tax relief for middle class families"; funny, we could have used a middle class tax cut when she was in the NC Senate, but all we got during her tenure on the finance committee in the General Assembly was more tax increases, more spending, and more unemployment. It looks as though she is continuing to do the same in Washington.

You mention that Hagan won her race against an incumbent (Dole), whereas Obama and Perdue did not have to take on incumbents in their races. True, but as I mentioned earlier, Dole's support was "a mile wide and an inch deep" as some pudit put it during the campaign. Plus, Dole's ad about Hagan attending a fundraiser that was hosted by an atheist couple completely backfired, and was one of the most ill-conceived political ads in recent memory; that ad probably added to Hagan's margin of victory.

Another reason that Hagan's margin of victory exceeded those of Obama and Perdue was the fact that they were running against very seasoned and popular polticians. Pat McCrory was consistently in the lead (in all polls) in his race with Perdue, albeit by a narrow margin, right up to election day. No one benefitted more from Obama's coattails than Perdue; it was his campaign's exceptional get-out-the-vote ground game that registered thousands of first-time voters that simply pulled the "D" lever. Let's face it, the overwhelming number of them were there to vote for Obama, and they weren't about to split their tickets. Obama's slim margin of victory (14,000 votes) was due to a number of factors. One factor was that North Carolina has not been friendly territory to Democrats running for President; Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to win the state, and that was in 1976. Second, Obama was one of the most left-wing candidates that the Democrats have nominated in recent memory, and with North Carolina being a relatively conservative state, he was never going to win in a landslide here, even in a favorable election cycle like 2008. Third, unfortunately, there are still some voters who probably would not vote for a minority for high office (and they're not all Republicans); that factor probably held down his winning margin. Lastly, Hagan was endorsed by virtually every daily newspaper in this state, whereas Obama and Perdue did not have that going for them (why, the N&R actually endorsed McCrory for governor); even in this digital age, there are some that are still swayed by newspaper endorsements.

Is that "objective" enough for you, Doug? Believe it or not, there are many people like me that have never been impressed by Kay Hagan, not then, and not now. I know that may be hard for you people on East Market Street to believe, but it's true.