Just about every week a politician or wanna-be politician visits The N&O to tell us why he or she is the right person to lead the people to a new era of excellence and prosperity. So I confess I was disappointed when Stormy Daniels did not drop by last week when she was in town. Her visit would have been more interesting than, say, our recent discussion about health care with U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge.

Daniels, the star of more than 100 adult films, was considering a run for the U.S. Senate. She was in town to perform at The Men's Club. I missed the show. The women at my house want me home (or at least they say they do) and I'm asleep long before Daniels takes the stage. But N&O reporter Josh Shaffer, our angel of the odd, had an exclusive interview with Daniels, who revealed that she was not going to run for the Senate after all. She had considered running against U.S. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, whose family-values reputation was damaged when his phone number turned up in the records of an escort service. Click here to read Shaffer's story.

(By the way, I am reasonably certain that Stormy Daniels is not related
to the Daniels family that owned The N&O for more than 100 years.
Her real name is Stephanie Gregory Clifford. But if she is a member of
the Daniels family of Raleigh, that would be a happy coincidence.)

We placed Shaffer's story on the front page with the headline, "Citing cost of Senate run, porn star bows out of race." Mary Windham, a lawyer from Chapel Hill, was disgusted. She said the story was degrading and that "promoting the oldest sexist exploitation of women in the world as news is just pathetic." Click here to read her letter. I'll admit that I cringed at some of the wordplay in Shaffer's story. 

Was Daniels' visit to Raleigh important? No. But the newspaper is full of important stories -- the front page especially. Borrowing a tactic from The Wall Street Journal, we try to publish one front-page story a day that provides a break from all the doom, gloom and weighty issues of the day. We want a front page that is lively and eclectic. By the way, Daniels had some interesting things to say -- in my view, at least as interesting as Jesse Ventura (wrestling) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (action movies) did before they used their fame to enter politics. On this day, our interview with Ms. Daniels made the front page better. 

We try to have a sense of humor, even if some of our readers don't. 

--John Drescher