Editor, editorial writer and columnist on the editorial page of the news and observer for 31 years. He will introduce our special guest lease help me welcome jim jenkins. [applause] come on up, zuck. In 1973 i saw him first. Across a loud, profane, filthy newsroom in downtown raleigh. He was right out of school. I was still in school. I looked across and is said to someone, whose that . , thats david zucchino. Is going to be the new star here. He had long, dark hair over his shoulders, a thick jet black mustache. It was a long time ago. [laughing] david is a grad of the unc Journalism School and a member not of the journalism hall of fame. In raleigh he became famous very quickly in the newsroom when a new young editor came in and sent out a memo to the reporting staff saying each reporter will submit to his editor every morning and itinerary for his plans for the day. David even then impossible to came, sat down at the old manual typewriter. Its a legendary story. Many of the people w
writer with news and observer of raleigh, north carolina. joe hallett of the columbus dispatch in ohio. from milwaukee, wisconsin, craig gilbert, washington bureau chief for milwaukee journal sentinel. thank you for being here. start going around the horn. first to you, rob. in north carolina. the real clear politics average of polls down there, this is the average of five latest polls. mitt romney is up 49.8% to 46%. this is a lot closer than actually many republicans thought it would be at this point. well, north carolina is a curious battleground state. we don t have the presidential candidates here. president obama has not been here since the convention in charlotte. governor romney was here once when he met with reverend billy graham. the republicans had hoped to put this state out of play by the summer. that hasn t happened. governor romney does have a small lean here but it s within the margin of error, the most recent, the most
carolina interesting is that it has the largest african-american population of any of the battleground states. bret: last word, craig. machine in wisconsin? yeah, well, wisconsin is the highest turn-out state of the battlegrounds and it s very organized, engaged mobilized state as we have been watching in the last two years. i think both sides know how to maximize their vote. it will be a test for democrats, because clearly people are not as energized as they were four years ago. but i think we re going to see a sky high turn-out. it will remind people of 2004, which is a very close election. bret: you want to make predictions for your states? okay. crickets chirping here. okay. rob, joe, craig, thank you very much. we really enjoyed the panels. thanks a lot. next up, breaking news on the libya scandal. jennifer grin will join us with news just coming as we speak. keep it here. bob.