Guus Bosman

I've always found the emphasis on 'attack ads', political commercials that portray a political opponent in a bad light, a bit silly. How would any serious voter be influenced by a 30 second TV commercial?

I don't know much about North Carolina's politicians, but I've heard about Elizabeth Dole before; she's a senator for North Carolina and has a long history in national politics as well. Now, the first associations that I have with her name are "very ineffective" and "43 years in Washington DC". It may be completely unfair, but the first thoughts I have about Mrs. Dole are pretty negative -- a direct result of this TV ad that has been airing very frequently lately (there are on-line ads against her as well). I like to think I'm rational enough to ignore these associations and thoughts, but who knows?

On my way home from work I listened to the last 15 minutes of a debate between the two major candidates for Governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory. Bev Perdue I know, but again the main thing I "know" about Pat McCrory is that he will "favor Charlotte over the other areas in North Carolina", because of an ad I heard on the radio once. Would it influence my vote? It's hard to tell, but I'm not so certain anymore that attack ads don't work.

On a related topic, Monday night at the Jaycees in Chapel Hill BJ Lawson spoke about why he his running for Congress. I don't think I've ever met an American politician before, and it was an interesting evening.

Inspired by a surprise discovery in San Diego during our vacation we visited the North Carolina Museum of Art today.

The museum's collection is wide in scope, and it's a pretty large museum. We visited the European Collection, which includes a nice selection of Dutch and Flemish art from the 16th and 17th century. We couldn't find the painting of the Grote Markt in Haarlem by Berckheyde, but there were a couple of empty places on the walls so it may be on loan.

One of the highlights for me was a painting by Ruisdael, Wooded Landscape with Waterfall. There was also a smaller painting with a traditional Dutch winter landscape that I liked, with people skating on a frozen river.

Since we came back from California it's been politics around the clock.

I watched quite a bit of it: the Democratic convention last week, Mr. McCain's announcement for a running mate and the following review of that surprising choice in the weekend, and this week the Republican convention.

This election year has been incredible so far. So many surprises, so many debates, so much going on. For many years I've enjoyed following the US elections (in 2004 watching the debates online, and watching the election results with friends). It's great to be in the USA and to experience this amazing election cycle from close.