Charlotte Newspaper: McCrory Was ‘Thin-Skinned,’ ‘Petty’ In Cook’s Firing

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory speaks to the media during a news conference at the NASCAR Sprint Cup auto racing Media Tour in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, Jan. 27, 2014. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
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North Carolina’s biggest newspaper has weighed-in on the saga involving the state’s Republican governor, a fired grocery store cook and now a Democratic mayor.

The verdict: Everybody ended up looking kind of bad.

An editorial published Wednesday by the Charlotte Observer acknowledged that Drew Swope “acted inappropriately” when he made a snarky remark to Gov. Pat McCrory (R) at Reid’s Fine Foods in Charlotte. The confrontation cost Swope his job at the high-end grocery store and he accepted the consequences.

After the firing drew some publicity, Charlotte Mayor Pat Cannon stepped in and offered to help Swope find a job — an action that the Observer panned as “a blatant and useless political ploy.”

“He did not offer to individually help the tens of thousands of other unemployed Charlotteans find a job,” the editorial board wrote.

But the harshest judgment, by far, was reserved for McCrory.

The editorial board wrote that the incident “reinforced his image as thin-skinned” and that a savvier politician would have played it differently.

Imagine how a sharp political adviser would have had the governor parlay the confrontation into a positive. Instead of coming across as petty, McCrory could have ignored Swope’s comment, or even embraced the opportunity for dialogue. He could have been forgiving and charitable – and be seen as the grown up in the room. Instead, he accidentally made national news again.

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