By B.J. Drye, Managing Editor
Sunday, May 11, 2008
May 12, 2008 01:52 pm
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We witnessed this week the underdog overcoming great obstacles again.
When 22-year-old Justin Burr defeated incumbent Kenny Furr and county commissioner Dr. Nalin Mehta on Tuesday in the N.C. House District 67 race, many people were probably shocked to say the least.
Mehta seemed to have a big amount of backing, and an incumbent usually has more name recognition than the challengers, sometimes giving him or her an edge.
Obviously Burr had more support than some people realized. He has built connections to former Sen. Jesse Helms and Sen. Elizabeth Dole and is the former leader of the Stanly County Republican Party.
Sometimes the person who doesn’t seem like the front-runner can slip under the radar and take the victory.
However, the celebration didn’t last long for Burr. Even though he won by more than 300 votes, it wasn’t a big enough of a victory, as a runoff between Burr and Furr may be coming up in the next month.
This may not actually be a bad thing for Burr.
As we’ve seen with the presidential race for a Democratic nominee, a fight to the finish keeps your name constantly before the public. No matter who the winner is, both of the participants will come out as being true competitors, willing to put forth an extra effort to accomplish their goals.
If Burr wins in a runoff, he will be seen as a true battler, earning his spot by winning a close race and a runoff.
If Furr wins, he will then be seen as the Rocky-type, able to come from behind, standing tall on the capitol steps with his hands held high in victory.
Switching back to the highly contested presidential race, Sen. Barack Obama won North Carolina this week by a big margin, but Stanly County heavily favored Sen. Hillary Clinton. Clinton barely won Indiana, so many people are now calling for her to quit.
More than a year ago, we weren’t hearing about Barack Obama. He came out of nowhere, much like the underdog, to take the lead over the heavily-favored Clinton.
It’s amazing how wishy-washy people, especially superdelegates, can be. You side with one person when they’re winning, then switch to the other person when they capture the lead.
It reminds me of the people who were a Carolina or Duke fan one year, only to switch to the other team the next year just because they won a championship.
Just because someone seems down and out, doesn’t mean it’s time to totally go against them.
If we always sided with the favorite, we’d have no New York Giants winning over the undefeated New England Patriots.
We’d have no N.C. State Wolfpack winning it all in the 1983 NCAA championship.
Remember the words of the late Jim Valvano …
“Don’t give up … don’t ever give up!”
B. J. Drye is managing editor of The Stanly News and Press. Write him at P.O. Box 488, Albemarle, NC 28002. E-mail him at snaponline25@yahoo.com.
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