CHARLOTTE – There is a loophole in the fashion rules barring seersucker after Labor Day that allows judges from former Confederate states to wear the light-weight fabric any time it’s not snowing. South Carolina convention delegate — and former judge — Vic Rawl was exploiting that loophole this morning when I ran into him trying to buy tickets for the light rail.

After I helped him out, we boarded the light rail and chatted about the convention, politics, and the economy. His main criticism of Obama was that he dealt with the Republicans too much when Democrats controlled Congress, and that he wasn’t insistent enough in pressing his agenda. Rawl’s only substantive critique was on defense and security policy, where he called Obama “maybe a little bit neocon,” pointing to Obama’s use of drones and his keeping Guantanamo Bay open.

As we alighted the light rail at the convention center, Rawl gave me some interviewing tips, and then he gave me a much tougher assignment: “I’m the one who lost to Alvin Greene in the primary,” the elder statesman said, referring to the 2010 Senate race where no-name no-chance Alvin Greene inexplicably won the Democratic nomination. “Figure that s–t out.”