A crowd of more than 500 showed up at the state fairgrounds in Raleigh on Thursday night to hear conservative politico Michelle Malkin pick apart President Barack Obama’s record.

Americans for Prosperity, a Virginia-based conservative advocacy group, organized the event as part of a 16-stop bus tour across North Carolina, called the “Obama’s Failing Agenda Bus tour” that started earlier in the week in Charlotte and ended in Raleigh.

AFP North Carolina director Dallas Woodhouse said the bus will also roll through other swing states.

Woodhouse poked fun at the change of venue for Obama’s speech accepting his nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for president at the national convention, prompted by a forecast for stormy weather. Woodhouse noted it’s been known to rain on summer nights in North Carolina.

He handed out ponchos to people in the front row.

“You don’t know how dangerous it’ll be out there tonight,” he said.

With every seat taken and a crowd standing to hear Malkin, she told the crowd that those on the left “don’t control the narrative anymore,” and she spelled out a narrative of her own that has served as a rallying cry for conservatives this election cycle.

She railed against the government-backed Solyndra boondoggle, hit the president’s record on spending and the economy, and pointed to the burgeoning national debt. The media was slammed. So was “Obamacare.” Even though disdain of Democrats was palpable, Malkin railed against President George W. Bush’s support of TARP and banking bailouts. The crowd ate it all up.

Lee County GOP head’s comments irk Dems

Democrats in Lee County are making hay of comments a local Republican leader made to a Los Angeles Times reporter.

Charles Staley, chairman of the county GOP, said during a recent interview with Hector Becerra that Republicans are wrongly cast as anti-Latino, anti-black and for “the rich white man, and not there for the poor people who don’t have a job.”

Staley said nothing could be further from the truth. But his reasoning upset county Democratic chairwoman Ann McCracken.

Said Staley: “Lyndon Baines Johnson gets in there, there’s riots in the streets, so they decide, we need to keep these black people in their place. So, well, one way we can do it is to form this Great Society and make sure everybody gets some money and if they get in trouble, we’ll stop giving them money. That was the foundation of what we call social services. Up unto that point, the black population voted Republican.”

McCracken said in a press release that she doubts most Republicans believe his “offensive view that social services are a means to sway the votes of minorities.”

His statement “is untrue and is offensive to Latinos as well as African-Americans,” McCracken said. “It raises serious questions about what types of people recruit candidates and direct campaigns in our county.”

She called on Staley to step down. When reached by Dome by phone, Staley said he had not seen McCracken’s release. Since being forwarded the release, he has not responded.

Stam’s opponent gets backing from LGBT community

Jason Wunsch, the Democratic opponent to House Majority Leader Paul “Skip” Stam, of Apex, has received the backing of Wake County activists who are upset with Stam’s lead role in passing several key laws favored by conservatives this past session.

The Raleigh GLBT Report, a website for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual community, came out in support of Wunsch this week. The Report also published a letter of support from former Raleigh minister Jimmy Creech and his wife, Chris Weedy.

They acknowledge Wunsch’s campaign is “a David and Goliath fight on several levels.” Stam is a six-term member of the House and, as one of its Republican leaders, sits on a well-financed campaign fund.

The Wunsch supporters cite Stam’s role in the constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, the law restricting abortions, the Racial Justice Act, private school legislation and his support for fracking.

Wunsch is a lawyer in Fuquay-Varina.

Romney ads target military, manufacturing

Among the 15 new TV ads released by Mitt Romney’s campaign hours after the Democratic National Convention ended in Charlotte, two were aimed at North Carolina: one targeting manufacturing and the other the defense industry here.

One ad claims the president’s defense cuts “threaten thousands of jobs” and says that Romney “will reverse President Obama’s defense cuts and create over 350,000 jobs for North Carolina.”

The other says: “Under President Obama, North Carolina is not better off,” says a release touting one of the ads, which is focused on manufacturing. “Mitt Romney will stand up to China and reverse President Obama’s job-killing policies.”

Staff writers Austin Baird and Craig Jarvis

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