Throwing his hat in the ring Josh Stein’s off and running for Governor; I got a surprise that day I met him years ago: Sitting on opposite sides of a table disagreeing, we argued – the surprise I got was his old-fashioned, soft-spoken, courtesy.

I met Stein’s Republican opponent a decade later – Mark Robinson strode through the door into a room packed with Republicans face beaming, as people fawned, surrounding him, his grin widened; on stage that night making his speech, strutting, arms-waving, voice booming, Robinson mirrored Trump – and that’s a problem: People are tired of showmen. And Josh Stein intentionally touched that nerve the day he announced, calling Robinson a ‘bomb thrower’ and showing him strutting on stage, roaring.

Bomb thrower versus soft-spoken.

That means we get to watch an old story one more time: North Carolina’s version of Trump runs for Governor. We get a character election where issues fall by the wayside. And Trumpsters lose.