"War is hell," Dole told a dinner at the state GOP convention Saturday night in New Bern. "But I saw firsthand in Iraq the tremendous progress that our coalition forces are making."

Dole flew into Baghdad on a C-130 loaded with troops. In the city, she met with leading U.S. generals, diplomats and with top Iraqi leaders including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Dole said she was encouraged by Iraqi efforts to train their security forces.

"Pulling out and turning the country over to the terrorists is unthinkable." Dole said. "It would destabilize the region and would embolden the terrorists to attack us again."

She quoted Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as saying, "The United States and the coalition countries can't lose this war. It can only be lost in Washington, D.C."

After getting back to the U.S. last week, Dole said she called dozens of families of North Carolina service members to thank them for their contributions and to let them know she had met their son or daughter.

Governor prospects

Two GOP gubernatorial hopefuls for 2008, state Sen. Fred Smith of Clayton and Salisbury lawyer Bill Graham, worked to keep a high profile at the GOP convention.

Smith, a Clayton businessman, spoke to the convention Saturday, sharply criticizing Democratic-controlled government in Raleigh.

He outlined a series of constitutional amendments that the Democratic legislative leaders would not allow a vote on, such as a Taxpayers Protection Act to restrict annual budget growth, a measure to restrict government seizure of private property, and an amendment to ban homosexual marriages.

After he made each point, he led the convention in responding: "The liberal Democratic Senate won't let us vote."

Smith also paid for a reception for the delegates at the convention hotel.

Graham introduced Dole at her speech at a dinner Saturday night.

Dole, a fellow Salisbury resident, had nice things to say about Graham and noted that Graham had held a fundraiser for her 2002 Senate campaign in his home.

Graham's advisers circulated a campaign poll showing that if the primary were held today, Graham would win 23 percent, Smith would have 4 percent, and 73 percent were undecided.

The survey of 400 likely Republican primary voters was conducted May 30 and June 1 by McLaughlin & Associates and had a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.

Graham recently spent at least $1 million of his own money on a TV ad campaign calling for a rollback of the state gas tax.

Lake looks back

Former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr. may not be running for governor, but over the weekend he sounded as though he would like to run.

Lake, who retired from the bench this year, was honored Friday night at a dinner at the convention. Lake thanked the people who had supported him over a political career that goes back to the 1970s. And he dissected his unsuccessful challenge to Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt in 1980, saying that if the election had lasted another two weeks, he might have won.

As a result of Hunt's victory, Lake said, "North Carolina lost in education and in a number of other areas."

"We have what I consider the miserable situation we have now with education," Lake said. "We are not educating our young people as we should."

Lake, who was the first elected Republican state chief justice, said improving education was one of just one of a number of reasons North Carolina needs to elect a Republican governor in 2008.

"We've got the right values," Lake said. "We have got to let people know that we know what marriage is all about, between a man and a woman.

"We know that we have to preserve private property rights in this state. We know we've got to secure our borders. We know what it means to educate our children."