Patrick Ballantine has a response for the not-so-surprising wave of TV ads featuring Andy Griffith endorsing Mike Easley:

?Andy Griffith is a liberal actor who played a conservative sheriff on TV,? Ballantine said, adding that Griffith’s TV alter ego, Sheriff Andy Taylor, would vote Republican.

Otis the town drunk, he said, would vote for Easley.

So, would that give the tie-breaking vote to Goober, Barney, or Floyd? My guess is that Goober goes for Easley (NASCAR, woodworking, and all that). Barney is a Ballantine man, I?m betting, because both are underdogs and for reasons best left to one?s expansive imagination. That leaves the central character on the show, as far as I am concerned: Floyd the barber.

I see him, if he remembers to amble down to the polling place at all, casting a vote for Barbara Howe. The reason? Among others, Floyd would very much enjoy saying ?Governor? How?? and ?How, Governor Howe? and other plays on words. He?s a real cut-up.