At an ‘Open House’ years ago at our school I listened as Eric talked with a parent I barely knew – then as the parent walked away I said, He sounds like a reasonable man.

He mistreats his wife, Eric said.

Physically?

Eric nodded.

I looked back at the parent and saw a different man.

Pat McCrory, of course, had no untoward behavior like that. Even remotely. But in the aftermath of his election I think he did have a problem with how people saw him changing.

When Pat took office the only place most people had seen him or heard him speak was in his campaign’s TV ads – and in those ads Pat was attractive and reasonable. The story his campaign ads told about Pat was reassuring.

But a few months later, when two of Pat’s campaign aides were appointed to jobs in the Department of Health & Human Services after he was elected, the press began asking questions. At first Pat chose not to answer – but when the reporters kept asking he explained the aides were fine young men who were smart and qualified and the salaries were fair. The two aides were making $85,000 and $87,500 each. And they were each 24 years old.

At that moment I think the ‘old’ perception people had of Pat began to unravel and, watching him, they started to think, He’s not the man we thought he was.