It takes a special kind of gall to attempt to convince everyone that you’re winning the fight when in actuality you’re wrapped up in the ropes and about to go down.

But that’s our reading of the offer from the architects of HB 2 to all in the state who wish they’d never heard of the damn thing: Have Charlotte City Council repeal their ordinance that treats all of its citizens with dignity, privacy and respect, and maybe we’ll take a look a retooling HB 2.

Because they started it!

Charlotte’s not going for it, Mayor Jennifer Roberts announced on Monday, recognizing the offer for what it is: a conditional surrender, and a way out for a party so entrenched on this issue that it’s performed the political equivalent of a public shart.

The irony, of course, is that HB 2 was dreamed up — mostly by the state Chamber of Commerce, if you believe our governor — as a political catalyst, a slate of restrictive labor laws hidden inside the Trojan horse of the bathroom issue that was supposed to energize the conservative bedrock in North Carolina.

And it sorta did… until Bruce Springsteen pulled out of his show at the Greensboro Coliseum and forced everyone to pick a side.

The rest — PayPal, the NBA All-Star Game and, last week, the NCAA and the ACC — were just dominoes.

Now, almost half of North Carolina residents — 49.5 percent — who responded to an Elon poll released this week were against HB 2, while 39.5 percent supported it. Almost 60 percent felt that HB 2 had damaged the state’s reputation.

And so after blaming the media, our cities, Obama, the left-leaning cabal of American universities and McCrory’s political opponent, state Attorney General Roy Cooper, for the ostracism of our state, McCrory’s team once again points to Charlotte as the root of HB 2 and the only obstacle to its repeal.

Let’s hope they have another clean pair of pants lying around somewhere.

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