Harry Taylor is the 61-year-old, prosperous commercial real estate broker with offices in Uptown Charlotte who confronted President Bush in person yesterday when the president addressed the city’s World Affairs Counsel. During the Q&A session, Taylor stood up and said, without wavering:

“I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate … And I would hope … I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself.”

The president responded with his patented Rovian canned patter. (Read President Bush’s response here.) It is obvious now that he had been prepped for just such a blistering assault months ago before he was sent out to do these live sessions with “real” people.

The president’s ready response prompted BuzzFlash and others to wonder if perhaps Taylor was a plant. This suspicion made perfect sense, and is indicative of where we are as a country six years into the through-the-looking-glass reign of George Bush. There is no doubt that Karl Rove’s office might have sent someone like Harry into the meeting as a strawman for Bush to take down — with the resulting sound bite showing the president handling the criticism with the ease of an innocent.

But as an expatriated Charlottean, my impression of Harry Taylor was that he was the genuine article. I did some research and called into the Queen City for some help on the ground. (Thanks, JR.)

And it doesn’t surprise me that Charlotte was the scene of the confrontation. Yes, it is a conservative banking town, headquarters for two of the nation’s largest five largest banks, but Charlotte is known in the region for its independent streak — for being a too-slick, sophisticated urban enclave that is “in” North Carolina but not “of” the Tarheel state (which is a sentiment the rest of the state — especially the crunchy-granola Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill metro area — agrees with wholeheartedly).

Even so, Bush’s popularity statewide has dropped like a stone. Even a poll by a conserative group in Raleigh shows that “Bush’s job rating has sunk in North Carolina, a state he twice carried by wide margins. A new poll by a conservative Raleigh think tank found 46 percent approve of his performance, while 42 percent support his handling of the war in Iraq.”

Here’s some of what we know about Harry:

Taylor, who said he does not have a party affiliation, said he has participated in several recent protests outside the Charlotte office of U.S. Rep. [and former Charlotte mayor] Sue Myrick, a Republican supporter of the president, and has written letters and signed e-mail petitions protesting administration actions.

In researching his business, Taylor Real Estate Group, a Google search shows that his company is involved in multimillion dollar deals in the Charlotte, which is among the top two or three fastest growing metropolitan areas of the country.

Harry Taylor should be treated like an American hero. He had the courage to stand up and say directly to President Bush what millions of Americans feel about the malfeasance and incompetence of this president’s administration.

His critical statements to the president are a first. No Democrat — not even John Kerry — and certainly no American reporter, has ever directed such baldly honest statements to George Bush in person.

Taylor’s standing up is a minor but significant echo, in a way, to the appearance last summer of Cindy Sheehan on the national scene.

She was a grieving mother of a soldier killed in the war in Iraq — a war that President Bush started for no other reason than his personal whim, that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of brave American service personnel and innocent Iraqi children and adults. But while Sheehan’s cause was noble the traditional media discounted her protests her because she is a liberal.

Harry Taylor represents the everyman independent — the sensible middle. He speaks for them, as well as for those on the left, who are, to use a cliche, “mad as hell, and not going to take anymore.”

His standing up yesterday is also an indicator of how much the president has lost ground with independents and independents. If this normally complacent voting group is agitated against him to the point of standing up and speaking out, it cannot portend well for Bush or his party.

I’m glad Taylor spoke out, but I am left with the horrifying conclusion that Harry’s confrontation of President Bush may have been it — that yesterday’s moment in Charlotte will be not only the first time anyone challenges George W. Bush about his abysmal record and damage he has done, it will also be the last.