Proof that I voted for Ron Paul in today's North Carolina primary

My precinct is at Reidsville Middle School. I just returned from there. Here is a photograph that I took of my ballot in today's North Carolina primary election. As you can see I cast my vote for Ron Paul for President... and it's been a long time since I've enjoyed having so clean a conscience in voting for a presidential candidate! None of that "hold my nose and pull the lever" here.

How many other people will be able to say that? Not nearly enough, probably.

I also voted for Eric H. Smith for statewide Superintendent of Public Instruction. But since I'm his campaign treasurer, y'all probably knew that was a given, too.

There may or may not have been other candidates and/or measures that I gave consideration toward. Parse that however you will.

On an ironic note, someone has told me that over at Free Republic there are many North Carolina voters who are bragging about having cast a ballot for Hillary Clinton! It was a little over five years ago that I was banned from that site for admitting that I would vote for Erskine Bowles for Senate because between he and Liddy Dole, only Bowles was the real North Carolinian. I knew that Free Republic had gone down the tubes, but I didn't know it was that bad. I have to laugh.

But as for myself, I cast my vote based on my principles and my convictions, without regard to party loyalty or childish chicanery. Which means that there might have been some races or issues that I did not vote at all. And there's nothing wrong with that. I've never played games with my vote. Even the ones that I cast that in hindsight were less than wise, I cast them only out of sincere belief in either the candidate or the referendum. Too many men and women have died for that right than to cheapen it otherwise.

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Ron Paul endorses Eric Smith for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction. Plus: I got to meet Dr. Paul!

Ron Paul, Republican candidate for President, spoke at Carmichael Auditorium at UNC Chapel Hill yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Also speaking on the program - having received Dr. Paul's endorsements - were Eric Smith, who is running for North Carolina's Superintendent of Public Instruction and B.J. Lawson, candidate for North Carolina's 4th Congressional District. Since I am the treasurer for Eric's campaign, and also 'cuz I've always wanted to meet Ron Paul, I absolutely had to attend! :-)

It was just as noon hit that I was leaving Reidsville, and on the way I stopped at the Barnes & Noble in Burlington to buy a copy of Dr. Paul's new book The Revolution: A Manifesto, currently ranked #1 on Amazon. It was the only copy on the shelves and one of the associates told me that it had been "selling hard". When I got to Chapel Hill I spoke to Eric via cellphone and he told me that he had stopped at that very store to get a copy and we figure we'd missed each other by less than 20 minutes!

Lots of people showed up to hear Dr. Paul. One guy told me that he'd driven all the way from Asheville (which would be around 4 hours drive time). The program for the event had a Photoshop image of Ron Paul as Iron Man from the new movie (complete with stylized "Ron Paul" done like the Iron Man font).

I must apologize for the quality of some of these pictures. The lighting in Carmichael Auditorium seemed to be strange: some pics turned out great and others taken from the same spot, I had to do some work with image levels etc. to make them better because they were so dark.

The first to speak was Paige Michael-Shetley, the Chairman of UNC Students for Ron Paul:

And then Eric Smith got up and spoke for a few minutes about the platform he was running on as candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction. It was much the same speech as he gave at the Wake County Republican Convention a few weeks ago:

Eric was followed by B.J. Lawson, who spoke much about how he ended up running for Congress after hearing about Ron Paul and what he stands for:

And then, following Lawson's remarks, Dr. Ron Paul himself took to the podium!

Ron Paul spoke for about 45 minutes on a number of subjects, but especially foreign policy and economic freedom. The kinds of things that - though I'm admittedly a Ron Paul supporter I have to candidly observe - I've never heard John McCain or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or George W. Bush discuss. Certainly not with such eloquence and uncluttered presentation as Ron Paul did yesterday. It was like listening to one of the Founding Fathers, the way he spoke of individual liberty and why there needs to be less government as opposed to more.

Here are some shots of the crowd that came to listen to Ron Paul. This was a very enthused bunch but you know what? I don't know if it's because they were stoked about Ron Paul himself, or if it was more about his message of individual freedom that brought them here. Compare that to the footage we've seen of rallies for Obama and Hillary: those seem more like demonstrations of egotism. In contrast, Dr. Paul came across as probably the most humble candidate for high office that I've ever seen.

After Dr. Paul concluded his remarks, there was a "meet & greet" session where everyone could get their photo taken with him and he could autograph their books or yardsigns or whatever. While we were in line I couldn't help but take a picture of my feet standing on the floor at Carmichael Auditorium, 'cuz this is the same floor that Michael Jordan used to play on...

Here's Eric Smith along with Ron Paul:

And then finally, after wanting to meet him for a way long time (we're talking at least ten years now) I got to shake hands with Ron Paul! He also signed my copy of The Revolution:

On the way back home I couldn't help but think: more than seven years ago I almost met George W. Bush. That was the night that I saw first-hand how much an arrogant control freak Bush really is. Bush has since gone on to be the most wasteful and destructive President in American history. Yesterday I got to meet someone who couldn't be more a polar opposite: Ron Paul, who not only speaks of having less government and more individual opportunity, he believes it.

George W. Bush and Ron Paul. One is destroyer and the other is liberator. One is pro-war and the other is pro-life. One is a big-government socialist and the other is a classic capitalist. One believes in an American empire and the other believes as the Founders did that we don't go looking for fights. One preaches fear and the other preaches hope.

I certainly know which man I respect the more!

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This is why you should vote Eric Smith for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction

I'm the treasurer for his campaign, but this is the first time that I'm getting to see this. In this video of his appearance at the Wake County Republican Convention a few weeks ago, Eric discusses why North Carolina parents should be fully liberated to send their children to the schools of their own choice - including private school and homeschooling - and he hits on one of the biggest problems facing this country and the one that politicians seem the least determined to address: illegal immigration.

Thanks to Katy's Conservative Corner for providing this!

The North Carolina statewide primaries will be next week on May 6th. Eric is running on the Republican ballot.

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The Knight Shift officially endorses Eric H. Smith for North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction

Longtime readers know already that I'm very hesitant to hand out endorsements of candidates. Someone running for office has to sincerely persuade me that he or she is the right man for the job.

In this case, that wasn't a hard thing at all...

As of today, I'm announcing that The Knight Shift blog is officially endorsing Eric H. Smith in the race for Superintendent of Public Instruction for the state of North Carolina.

Smith is running as a Republican candidate in the North Carolina primary on May 6.

For disclosure's sake, I am compelled to notify my readers that in addition to my support of Eric in this way, I am also the treasurer of the Smith For NC Kids campaign committee. That's already been public record ever since Eric filed the paperwork to run. Eric offered me the position when he first considered "throwing his hat into the ring", and I accepted. Not just because I'm honored to have him as a friend but also because I earnestly agree with his philosophy regarding education.

In short: Eric believes that parents - and not bureaucrats - are the ones who most fully understand the best interests of their own children. And he believes that parents not only have the right to determine where their children go to school at in public education systems, but they also fully have the right to not participate in public education at all. In that regard, he is perhaps the most outspoken advocate for the rights of home schoolers that I have ever seen run for office at this level.

Eric believes in rooting out the corruption that we've seen in Raleigh and ending the wasteful spending at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Eric has also been a very vocal critic of No Child Left Behind and the failed ABC Accountability System.

And though it doesn't seem to be an "education" issue per se, Eric is strongly against illegal immigration. To the point that he does not believe that our tax money should be funding the education of illegal aliens. Free public education is part of the "honey pot" that is luring so many to enter this country illegally. If states begin denying publicly-funded education to those who are not eligible for it to begin with, it will be that much more incentive denied to those looking for a reason to come across our border illegally.

By the way, in addition to being treasurer of his committee, Eric has also asked if I will produce the television commercials for his campaign. So I'll be doing that for him, too. Remember those commercials we did when we ran for Rockingham County Board of Education that wound up mentioned by The New York Times and a lot of other media outlets? There's more stuff like that coming soon, and this time they'll be broadcast from Manteo to Murphy! They will be serious ads, and will explore these and other themes of Eric's educational beliefs... but I can also guarantee that they will be a bit entertaining, hopefully memorable. Maybe even downright controversial (hey, I'm the guy who blew up a schoolhouse to run for school board, remember?).

This is something I wanted to do a few weeks back, then decided I'd just wait 'til we were closer to the May primary and also "work in" the announcement into the new blog design that I'm now finding time to work on. I am proud to be able to say that I am giving Eric my complete support in his run, and I've no doubt that he will be a very strong and proactive superintendent for North Carolina's school system.

There is already a website for Eric H. Smith's campaign, but it is currently being redesigned (again for disclosure's sake, that is something that I am not working on and it's been contracted to another firm). There is more coming to is very soon but in the meantime you can discover more about Eric's thoughts on education. If you are a believer in smaller government, I believe there is much you will find about Eric that will have a lot of appeal for you.

If you would like to make a contribution to Eric's campaign, please follow the directions listed here on Eric's campaign website. Because of recent changes to campaign laws, the Superintendent of Public Instruction position is one of two that can not accept online contributions. All donations must be in the form of a hard-copy check.

From this point on I'll be posting regular reports about Eric's campaign, and will strive to keep everyone posted as to what's going on.

And I gotta admit: being treasurer of a state-wide political campaign, and getting to make TV commercials for it, is a pretty cool thing to feel good about :-)

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