After turning down Biden visit, Radford baker gets turn on Fox News
Radford baker Chris McMurray, who has received a lot of media attention for declining a visit from Vice President Joe Biden, appeared on the Fox News program “On The Record” last night. He again explained why he turned down the vice president’s advance team.
“A couple of reasons. The first reason: differences in my faith, in my Christian faith and what I believe that that administration stands for,” McMurray said. “I have some differences there, but also on policy. And one of the things that was playing out in my mind was the statement that President Obama made in Roanoke last month, speaking of small businesses and entrepreneurs all over the country, saying if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. And here we are, working 16, 18-hour days; and here’s my wife who’s been up for 24 hours; and here are my kids that are resting and sleeping in the back and, yes, we are building this. And it is in its infancy stage, but we are working very hard to build it.”
Host Greta Van Susteren pressed McMurray to elaborate on his faith-based differences with the Obama administration.
“I just think the current administration stands for some things that I don’t necessarily stand for because of my beliefs in Christian faith,” he said. “I just think there are some differences in what they stand for.”
McMurray didn’t cite any specific differences and, when pressed again, said he “didn’t mean any offense to the folks in the current administration.”
McMurray said business has “exploded” since his brushoff of Biden. And his 15 minutes of fame haven’t ended. He’s scheduled to be part of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s event this morning in Roanoke County.
– Michael Sluss
August 22, 2012 - 7:54 AM
Did he thank the Federal Government for the Bankruptcy protection it gave him when he folded his first bakery in 2009? How about the creditors he stiffed, did he thank them? “You didn’t build that” applies to this guy 100%.
Yeah, he built it all on his own alright. At least if you don’t include the government support he got through his bankruptcy filing (which his party would like to abolish), and the money he saved by stiffing his former creditors (small businesses as well, natch). Enjoy your 15 minutes.
Christians pay their bills. He is a selfish miopic simple minded fool.
Simple minded people spell myopic “miopic”
Stiff your creditors and become a RW hero. Gotta love Fox! All hail Joe the Baker.
When he goes under this time maybe God will encourage him to get his debts paid.
It’s funny how, if one takes the time to go beyond the 15 second sound byte, you get to the truth of the matter. I small businessperson is insulted when Obama says that it takes lots of infrastructure and concerted effort for a business to succeed, evidently because the small business owner doesn’t bother to listen to a full video clip.
The same small business owner has declared bankruptcy in the past, evading his financial obligations via legal maneuvers. I guess he ‘didn’t need’ those financial supporters in his failed business attempt.
Quite the hypocrite – as someone else said, another ‘Joe The Plumber’ to be held up for the small minded to salute.
Regarding assuming what people believe:
Honorable Mr Ryan, a nominal Roman Catholic, has exuded worshipful praise for Ayn Rand – a prominent radical ANTI-CHRISTIAN. He even was invited and spoke at a tribute to her. She has been called a ‘goddess’ to Republican (and other) economic conservatives. Mr Ryan was invited, and accepted the invitation, to speak in honor of an explicitly ANTI-CHRISTIAN thinker.
One of this goddess’s prominent and primary dicta is ‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’. The goddess also wrote scenes in books that were intended to describe her philodophy that include rape, in ways that suggest that these rapes were strengthening and affirming influences in characters’ lives. NO CARE for the victim, NO REMORSE in the rapist, and WITHOUT JUSTICE opposing violence.
The goddess also wrote – with almost adulation about a murderer (William Edward Hickman) who dismembered and disemboweled the child’s limbs and made the parents believe that the child was still alive by sewing the corpses’ eyes open.
‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’! But, the Strong and Selfish – even the violently selfish – are Admired. What has become of the Republican Party that once liberated the oppressed, but now oppress, and condone violent oppression? Their policies, and their rhetoric – such as Honorable Mr Akin talking about justified rape – ‘legitimate rape. The Republicans are also widely known to ‘believe’ in faith rather than science in matters of public policy – such as the ‘belief’ that women cannot become pregnant from rape, that the earth is only a few thousand years old, and that human beings are supposed to ‘dominate’ the earth and not have a care for pollution, etc.
Certainly, there is no greater ANTI-CHRISTIAN/ANTI-CHRIST teaching than the dicta: ‘The Weak Should Not Be Loved’. Why do so many so-called Christian believers support the policies, and candidates, of the Republican Party that feeds from the filth of an ANTI-CHRISTIAN/ANTI-CHRIST goddess?
With the Republicans – even those claiming to be believers in Jesus Christ – pursuing perversions of truth, adulation of idols, and abominations of desolation… one wonders if it is the Republicans’ plan to hasten the End Times?
Ahhh, but the God at The End may not be smiling on idolators.
Thanks Hokiebird. You get the point….right?
Rite…
Gobble gobble
Hmmm… back when michelle obama needed at raise at the hospital she worked at, her husband (the senator obama), requested an earmark of $1,000,000 for the hospital which in turn gave michelle a ‘much deserved’ 200% raise from $125,000 to over $350,000 per year.
I guess it would be REALLY easy to never go in debt that way, huh?
It’s amazing how every left-leaner here admits that there have been absolutely NO liberals that have ever been in debt, didn’t pay a debt, or filed bankruptcy.
Tell us Tass and Kristen, how much is still owed to Bob Pack at Kent Square in Blacksburg? If you don’t know, then you probably shouldn’t be so quick to insinuate that he owes any money at all…
Marked, I’ve never filed. Or run out on a landlord in the middle of the night (Pack’s words”. But that’s just me.
And we don’t have to know the dollar amount to comment on it. Nice try though.
As I said before, I’ll give the guy credit for some marketing genius. I wonder how business was before he thought this one up.
Nice try, kristen? So you are taking the word of the landlord who also has in effect ran Awful Arthur’s, Subway, and other businesses out of Kent Square due to incredibly high rent and substandard accomodations and now has a multi-million dollar complex that has a Starbucks (which may be leaving soon), a teach-you-how-to-sew shoppe, a small jewelry store, and thousands of sq. ft. of empty dilapidated space??
As I said before, I’ll give the LARGELY conservative TV station WDBJ-7 and the LARGELY conservative Roanoke Times newspaper credit for being the first media outlets to report his story to the world.
Yeah I guess some left wingers should just call him a “slut” and move on. That is how the right wing treats a citizen who speaks in support of Obama or his policies.
Marked, I’m glad you support running out on financial obligations.
The guy needs to come clean and admit he was afraid the Feds would bring a dope dog into his store as part of a security sweep before the VP visited.
Blue John, the Secret Service cannot bring ‘dope’ dogs along with biden… they would spend all day sniffing him.
Show me where I said that, Kristen? Thought so.
BTW, you never told us how much they still owe Bob Pack, or how much they ever owed him, or if they paid it off in one day… actually you never told us anything?!?
Typical lib… you tell them one thing and they pretend they hear another.
And hey, the Roanoke Times was making this guy’s story to be heroic.. not me. The same Roanoke Times that reported his ‘bankruptcy’, that is.
I guess the Roanoke Times feels that a guy that breaks a lease and then opens a business and has record breaking sales is a ‘good’ thing? What say you, Kristen?
18- Are you saying that this Radford baker has illegal drugs in his business/building?
19 – LOL!
Marked, the RT reported that it happened. Do you assume that they only report on stories and subjects they consider “heroic”? Where would you get that assumption? Do you think they consider the deputy who shot his ex-wife dead to be a “hero”? Tell me where the “hero” part was? The exact spot. Because the reporting on McCrumb could just as easily read that he’s an ass. I guess it depends on what preconceptions you bring to the reading.
Bob Pack seems like a very forgiving guy, and I think it’s great that we can live in a country that allows us to ditch our debt and start with a clean slate. Hopefully the baker’s current business will allow him to be more responsible about his debt load and permit him to pay back his creditors in an honest and timely fashion. Because you can’t file bankruptcy more than once in 7 years.
I’m old fashioned…I support paying our bills. But I’m just a democrat.
More like “Chris the Crumb.” When your party has no heroes it becomes necessary to create them. Enjoy your 15 minutes…
Note that MMM is playing his usual games. Pretends that he knows something but provides no details. Reality is he knows nothing at all.
It seems that small businesses have problems, no matter what party you side with or believe:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/07/27/3411094/democratic-candidate-for-dist.html
Kristen, “Radford bakery that turned Biden away sells out of ‘freedom cookies’
The viral reaction to Chris the Baker shows the continuing resonance of “You didn’t build that” in the presidential campaign.”
“Radford baker’s business booms after Biden brushoff
The small-business owner has become a star after turning down a photo op with the vice president.”
Some would call the sales he has now achieved as ‘heroic’.
You do understand, Kristen, that heroic can be defined as follows:
he·ro·ic adj
\hi-ˈrō-ik also her-ˈō- or hē-ˈrō-\
exhibiting or marked by courage and daring
Thusly, by exhibiting daring in the sense that turning down a request by the vice president to enter his store would NOT garner additional business, it seems that instead, it has exponentially increased after the snub instead.
Now, if you also need me to define ‘garner’ for you I will.
No one ever said that the RT ONLY reports heroic stories so your little argument makes no sense. In fact, it seems you may have some underlying reason to bring a mourning family’s issues instead. Kind of pitiful really on your part.
No b.o.h.i.c.a., Kristen says that democrats always pay their fair share and never file bankruptcy so you know that news story absolutely, positively, can NOT be true at all….
gdad, you seem to have an issue with me??
What details do you want provided?
#30 OK, MMM. Why don’t you go ahead and describe the “substandard” conditions at Kent Square and how you know the landlord ran people out. You’ve alleged both. However, in the story about Awful Arthur’s closing, one of the partners specifically said rent was not a factor in the closing. Apparently you think you know better so show us the proof.
Or how about Ben & Jerrys? An RT story described how the people who owned it were upset with the parent company because, according to them, the company misrepresented the kind of gross they would do and as a result they were losing money. They sued the parent company. Not a word of complaint about the rent at Kent Square or any “substandard” conditions, but apparently you somehow know different. Show us. Or how about Subway? The owner said his problems at Kent Square were because students had closer options and didn’t want to walk that far from campus, not to mention that there are about eleventy million places that sell subs in downtown Blacksburg. IOW, the owner miscalculated. Not a word about the rent or substandard conditions, but I guess you know better, eh? Prove it.
While we’re at it, I’m sure you can also show us EXACTLY where Kristen said Dems NEVER file bankruptcy. And where anybody (other than you) said this, “It’s amazing how every left-leaner here admits that there have been absolutely NO liberals that have ever been in debt, didn’t pay a debt, or filed bankruptcy.” (post #11)
You’ve also suggested that maybe the cookie guy doesn’t owe anything at all, that he paid off his rent. Well, if he doesn’t and you know he doesn’t, say so instead of playing your silly games.
Everywhere you post, MMM, people have issues with you and the idiotic games you play. “Nitpicking,” Dan Casey called it, and he’s right. But it’s worse than that.
I predict either silence or more misdirection from you.
gdad, I hate to have to set you straight again, but having a firsthand knowledge of the office space at Kent Square, it is very substandard. From the electrical wiring down to the plumbing and network cabling. I am sorry that you feel anything anyone says is untrue unless it is an ‘RT story’ (as you like to call it), but I am not about to drive over to Kent Square and take pics for you when, for the most part, you can walk up to the windows of any of the aforementioned establishments and see for yourself.
Anyone here is welcome to go over to Casey’s blog and witness his own ‘nitpicking’ first-hand… whether it is insulting Spanish speaking houseworkers (as he did a week ago) or insulting people from South Carolina (as he did a year ago), they have no shortage of material where gdad is calling people ‘trolls’, Casey is insulting people based on their ethnicity or birthplace, or Marked Man challenging gdad to a friendly competition in order to shut gdad up.
I also know what Bob Pack charged each tenant for rent and, as a courtesy, I will not break that trust. But I do know that had lower rent been an option, each place probably would have stayed. I also know that each current tenant has rent adjusted based on who they are. I have offered to meet you before and explain a LOT of things to you firsthand, but you shy away each time… comforted by your anonymity here.
gdad, you certainly could have deduced that when Kristen insinuated that I said I support running out on financial obligations, I stated that she insinuated that dums never file for bankruptcy,
IOW, as long as she plays her silly little game, I can play too.
Dan Casey called someone out on “nitpicking”? LOL. Pot meet kettle….typical.
And I have to apologize to Michael and Mason for gdad’s antics. He apparently followed behind me when I left Dan Casey’s nonsensical blog and began to post more on your blog. I thought I had wiped my feet when I came on board here.
After viewing gdad’s, who used to work for the RT, approved insults to many people on that blog and realizing how many other posters comments were being stricken by Mr. Casey, you could easily tell what a sham that blog was becoming.
Mark, wth are you babbling about?
Newsflash….sales can’t be “heroic”. Your post is just bizarre.
“Thusly, by exhibiting daring in the sense that turning down a request by the vice president to enter his store would NOT garner additional business, it seems that instead, it has exponentially increased after the snub instead.”
LMAO. This is just funny…your little foray into higher logic wouldn’t pass muster in a middle school research paper.
#30 BTW, MMM we now see from the newspaper that when the cookie dude filed bankruptcy he declared the vast majority of most of his more than $200,000 in debts uncollectable. But then he didn’t really want to discuss it because he didn’t think it should be in the story. He also wouldn’t discuss his “religious differences” with Obama. Probably one of those strange folks who thinks Obama is a Muslim, but he also knows it might not be good for business to say so because it just sounds so, well, religiously bigoted and crazy. But, by golly, his former minister said he was glad the guy stood up for his “morals.” What? You’re kidding?
Obama gave billions to GM as a bailout, billions more to failed companies, why not let Chris slide on bankruptcy? But you don’t because the plank is in your eye. Hypocrites.
#33 And Bush gave billions to the banks. Both saved tens of thousands — maybe hundreds of thousands — of jobs. Cookieman’s bankruptcy just hurt a bunch of people. What was your point again?
Besides, I was just trying to get another poster to back up some vaporous assertions he made.
“Cookieman’s bankruptcy just hurt a bunch of people.”
Give us the names of 5 people it hurt, gdad.
BTW, I answered your questions above and I did not name call or say anything ugly towards you. I apparently revealed a little too much about the Kent Square situation and Bob Pack and I guess it made this blog’s censors nervous about posting it and my post was deleted.
We deleted a bunch of comments from various posters that included personal digs and not much that really added to the discussion.
Please keep it civil and on topic.
– Mason Adams
gdad, I hate to have to set you straight again, but having a firsthand knowledge of the office space at Kent Square, it is very substandard. From the electrical wiring down to the plumbing and network cabling. I am sorry that you feel anything anyone says is untrue unless it is an ‘RT story’ (as you like to call it), but I am not about to drive over to Kent Square and take pics for you when, for the most part, you can walk up to the windows of any of the aforementioned establishments and see for yourself.
And why was this comment allowed then?
“Everywhere you post, MMM, people have issues with you and the idiotic games you play. “Nitpicking,” Dan Casey called it, and he’s right. But it’s worse than that.”
@37 Marked Man:
There are three of us writing posts and moderating comments, and we all have slightly different standards for comments. And while it wasn’t me that trashed all those comments, there was an email exchange about people abandoning the topic to take shots at each other.
At least once I froze a comment for profanity, wrote the commenter to ask them to resubmit without the cussing, and then came back later only to find that someone else had approved that initial comment.
Generally, though, we ask that folks keep it civil.
– Mason Adams
For what it is worth, I do not think bloggers sitting in the safety of anonymity should be able to defend anyone by denigrating the people they ran out on paying, regardless of your belief that such behavior was justified. Unless you are willing to make the accusations using your real name and accept the consequences, it should be trashed. Kent Square is not the topic here.
And Mason, some people are not capable of civility. You will know that in short order.
#36 “I am sorry that you feel anything anyone says is untrue unless it is an ‘RT story’…”
OK, MMM, so your basic answer is that the folks who left Kent Square and were interviewed by the RT were either lying or didn’t tell the whole truth? One would think that if Pack “ran” them out (your word), they’d mention that. Or maybe in each case the RT left out the info about awful conditions and rent at Kent Square? As for the condition of the empty store spaces, are you suggesting that what they look like right now is how they would remain if somebody new were moving in? Nothing would be spruced up for a new tenant?
And of course I can’t name anybody that the Cookieguy hurt because I don’t have his bankruptcy papers in front of me. And I don’t intend to go find them. But if most of those debts were indeed uncollectible, as the RT said he claimed in court, it’s a no-brainer that people got hurt. That’s what happens when you don’t get paid for your services.
BTW, did you ever find some of the other things you claimed, like EVERY left leaner admits that NO liberal has ever been in debt or filed bankruptcy? I’m still looking for where ANY liberal said that, much less EVERY liberal.
#37 And, MMM, I had at least one comment deleted as well, so it’s not that they’re picking on you.
Of course, gdad, they would probably ‘spruce’ up what they could to cover faulty wiring and plumbing and infrastructure. I mean, it’s obvious they made it ‘look’ decent enough for Subway, Ben & Jerry’s, Awful Arthur’s, and others that thought it would be a decent place to open up a shop in.
gdad, you’re speculation that MANY people were hurt is like speculating that a political disagreement between McMurray and Pack might have been what caused the fallout (since Pack previously had opened up office space for democratic Headquarters to use. Pure speculation, right?
gdad, in my deleted comment I laid out some facts about Kent Square and Bob Pack. It is understandable that the RT wouldn’t want to get involved, however. There have been RT newsrack boxes on Pack property before so I don’t know…
“And Mason, some people are not capable of civility. You will know that in short order.” – SS
“Reality is he knows nothing at all.” – gdad
#48 I get it, MMM, you’re claiming that a bankruptcy where most of the debts were uncollectible didn’t hurt anybody. Whatever you say. I’m sure you also laid out some “facts.”
BTW, MMM, did you ever find some of the other things you claimed, like EVERY left leaner admits that NO liberal has ever been in debt or filed bankruptcy? I’m still looking for where ANY liberal said that, much less EVERY liberal.
gdad, I was being facetious like Kristen was when she yakked “Marked, I’m glad you support running out on financial obligations.”
The bankruptcy case was closed years ago. Nobody was hurt. Heck, the RT even tried to contact Bob Pack but he could not be ‘reached’. I guess maybe Subway, Awful Arthur’s, and Ben & Jerry’s also left because their landlord could not be reached, oh, as well in addition to college students not wanting to walk downtown…
#53 OK, so now the fact that the bankruptcy was closed “years” ago, means that mean nobody got hurt? You can’t seriously believe that a bankruptcy where “most” of $200,000 in debt was uncollectible didn’t hurt anybody. If cookie dude had owed you $20,000 and you never recovered it, that wouldn’t hurt you at all?
And are you suggesting that the otherwise successful Subway owner was lying when he told the RT that kids not wanting to walk to Kent Square for a sub was a primary reason that location didn’t work out? We’ll wait around for your proof that he’s lying. Or your evidence that the owners of Ben & Jerry’s, who in fact sued the parent company, or Awful Arthurs were lying. I’m sure you had piles of inside information.
Instead of you asking for proof so much, gdad, how about you offer proof that the Subway owner had data suggesting that kids didn’t walk to downtown Blacksburg for food any longer? Strawman.
Also, everything I read stated the former store managers of Ben & Jerry’s in Blacksburg ‘planned’ to sue the parent company. But you stated they “in fact” DID sue. Proof?
Does this dog with a bone feud have to be carried out on two blogs now? Clearly Joe the Baker had help from the courts to relieve his debts and that is not “he built that” material. Just like Joe the Plumber, things are seldom as they seem.
He did build that. He clearly took matters into his own hands by leaving an establishment ran by an overbearing landlord (who also ran Subway, Ben & Jerry’s, Awful Arthur’s, Chu Cho’s, etc etc etc off) and moved somewhere that had a less left-leaning landlord instead.
#55 “How about you offer proof that the Subway owner had data suggesting that kids didn’t walk to downtown Blacksburg for food…”
Well, MMM, I guess he could have been lying when he told TheBurgs this: “Students just aren’t willing to walk those three extra blocks,” said Hillyard, who owns 10 Subway locations throughout the New River Valley.” But I sorta doubt it.
And it appears that the B&J owner said he did indeed plan to sue but I’m not certain he did. So what? My point, as anybody can read, was that his main complaint, at least in print, was that B&J misrepresented the average gross for a B&J. I find no evidence that he complained about the rent or facilities.
” “Students just aren’t willing to walk those three extra blocks,” said Hillyard,”
Sounds like speculation and not hard data to me… because VT students don’t usually walk downtown to eat or drink very often, right?
Sure seems that many businesses in the area (some national and some local, some close to campus and some farther away) have suffered and been forced to move out from under the hand of Pack or out of a building built and/or owned by him. Seems the type of person that is hard to reach for comment as well. Maybe it is tough for businesses to reach him when they have a complaint about his building infrastructure and he is easier to reach for comment after you refuse to pay him rent because of it?
Cabo Fish Taco (yumm) is right across the street from Kent Square… China Inn is up the block… Backstreet’s is a block or so farther away…
They seem to be doing just fine as far away or farther from campus as Kent Square is.
#59 Gee, MMM, all I can do is quote the guy who owned the business and decided to close it. I guess you can choose not to believe the reasons he gives. One would think that if he had been “ran” out he would have said so. Of course in proclaiming that you don’t believe the guy, you’re simply proving that you’re just being contrary to be contrary. But I think we were already aware of that.
You’ve offered no hard evidence that the owner of Kent Square was “overbearing” or even “left-leaning.” Sounds like speculation to me.
Gee gdad, all I can do is provide proof that many other businesses (not even chain brands) farther away from campus are doing just fine.
Besides, Pack has a track record of providing space for local businesses only to have them become unable to pay their rent and stay in those locations… all the while, many other establishments (not in Pack properties) chug along just fine.
The owner of Kent Square allowed democratic headquarters to occupy some office space rent-free. Seems left-leaning to me.
#62 So you’re saying that the Subway owner is either lying or doesn’t know what he’s talking about? The guy who owns 10 Subways. Right.
As I said, you’re being contrary just to be contrary. Standard.
Bob Pack has been an upstanding citizen and supporter of the Blacksburg economy. He has taken risks (yeah – he built that) – some of which have been more successful than others. I know of no circumstance where he has left debts unpaid. He certainly has contributed more to Blacksburg than Chris the Baker.
I agree, Suz. He has contributed to more crushed dreams and broken hope in Blacksburg than Chris the Baker.
@ Marked Man
Bob Pack was not the centerpiece of a political discussion – that was Mr. McMurray. Mr. McMurray invited this discussion about his background. Sounds like you have some personal animosity – not sure this is the forum for that.
#64 Yep, Blacksburg Suz, I see that when Pack announced that he was closing his gym, he also announced that he was giving folks their money back. Unlike the owners of many fitness places, who just skip out. And unlike some business owners who file bankruptcy and declare their debts “uncollectible.”
Well all you have to go on is that Bob Pack once said that the McMurrays skipped out of Kent Square in the middle of the night. When the RT went back to ask him about that in more detail and the McMurrays ‘sitch’ now, Mr. Pack was unreachable.
Funny how that works, isn’t it?
How freaking long is an anonymous blogger going to be allowed to attack a business person who has not put themselves into the public political arena? ENOUGH!
#68 Umm, it’s pretty simple, cookie dude filed for bankruptcy and declared in that filing that most of his debts were “exempt from collection.” You have evidence to the contrary?
Of course you don’t.
Who is attacking, Sandi? I was quoting what the RT said about him not being able to be reached for comment now. Problem??
The baker did not put himself into the political arena… someone else did that for him (WDBJ7 and the RT to be precise).
I wasn’t at bankruptcy court that day, gdad, so I don’t know what his lawyers or the court decided was exempt. If you were there, why don’t you tell us?
So Sandi, anonymous bloggers cannot attack anyone that is not in the political arena. Unless they are a democrat, then it is not okay for anonymous bloggers to attack them either? That is your mantra??
#71 “Overbearing landlord,” “left leaning (which in your world is some sort of insult),” “contributing to crushed dreams,” “faulty wiring and plumbing and infrastructure,” “substandard.”
Folks can just read your posts.
He is likely left-leaning because he allowed democratic headquarters to use one of his properties. In no way did I use that to insult him.
gdad, you are the one who chose to associate ‘left leaning’ with ‘overbearing’ and ‘substandard’ in your last post.
Very telling, indeed.