A visit from Bob Dole

Several weeks ago we were all sitting around our kitchen having a going away party for an employee. A lively discussion ensued about who has had close encounters of the "celebrity" kind, who has managed to get whose autograph and who has actually "stalked" a famous person (I use that term loosely).

Sadly, I had nothing with which to compete. (I did see Leif Garrett at the zoo when I was 13.)

Until now. In the span of less than two weeks I got to meet the Jonas Brothers (OK girls you can scream with envy), and another famous person in the political realm, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole. Yep, he walked right into The Cary News office this morning, went over to talk to some of our employees and just say hello. He was on the campaign trail for wife Elizabeth.

When his press people called earlier I told them that unfortunately, we don't cover state campaign races. And since Dole's visit to Cary (he stopped at Blue Moon Bakery on this rainy morning) was campaign related, we chose not to send a reporter.

While on the topic of political coverage I'll point out that for the last several years The Cary News has only covered town elections and, to a lesser extent, very local races such as school board. We often get candidates for state offices notifying us of visits or wanting to meet us for endorsements. We have not endorsed candidates either. We will continue this policy and leave those races to our sister daily The News & Observer, especially as our reporting resources shrink. However because of the widespread interest in presidential races, we won't ignore it if a presidential candidate comes to town.

I was pleasantly surprised when Dole and his staff stopped in anyway. He's tall, older than I expected but he's been out of the U.S. Senate spotlight for some years now. He talked about how the paper in the small town he's from still prints announcements about who's in the hospital and who retired recently, small-town stuff that community papers can continue to do well if the community stays small enough.

I joked with Mr. Dole about my luck — meeting the Jonas Brothers when they were in town two weeks ago and now the former senator himself. He smiled, didn't know who the JoBros were. The senator and his staff only stayed about 10 minutes before heading to Apex ( I encouraged them to stop downtown).

And now, finally, I have another handshake to brag about.