|
|
Gary Pearce posted on January 27, 2010 08:46
Once you get past the dishing about Sarah Palin, John Edwards, et al in the book Game Change, you learn a few things.
Like about President Obama.
That he’s like a basketball player who wants the ball when the game is on line.
That he has supreme confidence he can rise to the moment.
That he especially has confidence he can give a speech that changes the game.
He came through throughout his campaign – the speech on race, his performance in the fall debates, his cool response to the economic meltdown that caused John McCain to melt down.
Can he do it tonight?
One caution: Don’t rush to instant judgment tonight or tomorrow. Wait a few days. Instant analysis often proves wrong later.
Bill Clinton’s first State of the Union after the 1994 election – which lasted about 17 hours, as I recall – was panned at first.
Later, it turned out that Americans watched it all. And liked it.
Two weeks ago, Scott Brown was a game-changer.
Tonight, the reigning king takes his shot.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on January 26, 2010 12:49
Coming out of a meeting over in the state legislature Senate Kingpin Marc Basnight ran head on into a gaggle of reporters and right off someone asked if it wasn’t a bit underhanded for Basnight to appropriate $25 million for a new fishing pier at Nags Head and then have his own construction company build it.
No sir, Basnight said, There wasn’t one thing wrong with that.
Why not, the reporter asked.
Because, Basnight said, He hadn’t had a thing to do with Basnight Construction in ten or fifteen years.
What’s more, Basnight added, Last August when his cousin Jimmy had told him the company was going to bid to work on the new pier he (Senator Basnight) had uprightly and immediately resigned as President of the company.
Resigned, that is, as President of a company he’d just said he hadn’t had anything to do with for fifteen years.
About an hour later from after Basnight’s perspective things went from bad to worse.
Researchers at the Civitas Institute issued a ‘Research White Paper’ that showed Basnight Construction Company was awarded a contract to work on the pier nine months before Basnight resigned.
So Basnight’s been President of a company for fifteen years – but he now says hasn’t had anything to do with it; and he told the press he resigned before the company bid on building the pier – but now it turns out his company got the contract months before he resigned.
Well as the comedian on television used to say, that’s his story and he’s sticking to it.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on January 26, 2010 11:18
Congressman Brad Miller is never the happiest of warriors. But this year could raise his angst to new levels.
“I’ve made a real nuisance of myself to the most financially powerful industry in the United States,” Miller told Mark Binker.
Banks wouldn’t be his only worry. He’s also got Carter Wrenn running Bernie Reeve’s campaign against him.
Democrats facing Carter always ask me: “What’s he going to do?” Like it’s a mystery.
Carter will do the voodoo he always does.
Bernie’s campaign will do the research, they’ll raise the money, and Carter will have Bernie chewing on Brad’s leg from the get-go.
Memo to Brad: Don’t sit around waiting for it. Get going now. Define Bernie before he defines you.
Miller should win his race. After all, he drew up his own district.
But he won’t be having a lot of fun.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on January 25, 2010 16:59
Sometimes it seems like one of a President’s less enviable jobs is to be a kind of national whipping boy, an outlet for our pent up frustrations and afflictions. And even if pummeling, say, Barack Obama or George Bush won’t put people back to work it sure is satisfying to have someone to blame.
Don’t misunderstand – it’s not that the poor Presidential lambs are innocent of error. They’re not. President Obama’s crusade to remold American society has given a lot of people the willies and his spending a couple of trillion dollars to jump start the economy has turned out to be a dud not a stimulus – but at the same time there are also forces afoot in the land more powerful even than a President. Of course that doesn’t matter politically because Americans are accustomed to instant gratification and if we don’t get it – look out.
Independent voters were so incensed at President Bush two years ago they elected Obama (even in North Carolina) and now they’re so mad at President Obama they’re electing Republicans (even in Massachusetts).
These days the political tides are flowing against President Obama so fast and deep they’re drowning Democratic candidates left and right. He got 62% of the vote in Massachusetts in 2008. The Democratic candidate for Senate in Massachusetts just got 46%. That means a whopping 25% of Obama’s supporters switched sides and voted Republican. Which means heading into the fall election there’s not a safe Democratic Congressman or Senator in sight.
And what about the Republicans up in Washington?
They’re doing two things. First, they’re congratulating themselves on their new found political brilliance.
Second, like Napoleon’s mother at his coronation they’re praying, If only this lasts – until November.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on January 25, 2010 14:02
Team Obama has a 1-1 record. They won the 2008 campaign, and they lost the 2009 campaign. Now they’re resetting for the 2010 tie-breaker.
One step is organizational, and another is rhetorical.
Organization: They brought back 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe to oversee the 2010 elections. The lesson Team Obama took from Massachusetts is that the DSCC is inept. Where’s Chuck Schumer when you need him? Are you watching, Cal Cunningham?
Rhetoric: Last week Obama rolled out a speech where he used the words “fight” or “fighting” about every other paragraph. And he took a whack at big banks.
True-blue fans probably love that. But Americans generally don’t like angry politicians. And Obama doesn’t do a good angry-politician act.
His State of the Union speech will tell us what tone Obama has settled on – for now. And whether he’s figured out which direction to go on health-care reform.
Given what has worked for him before, Obama should be the picture of sweet reasonableness. Warmly invite congressional Republicans – and Scott Brown – to help shape health-care reform.
Put nicely, put up or shut up.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on January 25, 2010 13:59
President Obama made exactly the opposite mistake from Bill and Hillary Clinton on health-care reform.
The Clintons drew up a sweeping reform plan in secret, then sent it to Congress, where it died.
Obama let congressional Democrats come up with a reform plan. The first time it went to the voters, they voted to kill it. In Massachusetts, no less.
History repeats itself. The worst thing that can happen to a President – Democrat or Republican – is to have his own party control Congress. His fate is in the hands of the most extreme element of the party.
Now Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have done for Obama what Tom DeLay did for George Bush.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on January 22, 2010 17:38
Here’s a sure sign we’re in deeper trouble in Afghanistan than anybody’s letting on: The Afghan government (no doubt with U.S. taxpayers’ money) is offering the Taliban soldiers cold hard cash to surrender or, better yet, switch sides; of course being blossoming Afghanistan politicians are wrapping all this up in Washington style rhetoric calling their plan to bribe terrorists a ‘jobs program’ and saying what they’re really offering Taliban soldiers is ‘vocational training and economic incentives’ – if they’ll switch sides in the war.
I guess, in some ways, buying off an enemy makes more sense than fighting him. But any way you cut it paying Taliban soldiers to give up is a pretty clear admission of weakness. It’s like saying to the hard-bitten mujahedeen holding a gun on you, Okay, you win – now, would you be interested in a bribe and do you mind if we call it a jobs program?
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Posted in: General, Issues
Carter Wrenn posted on January 22, 2010 14:16
For those inclined to believe in the infallibility of modern science here’s a cautionary tale.
A few years ago our scientists announced the Y chromosome – “the thing that makes a man male” – was a pretty poor creature; the Y chromosome, they said with conviction, was shrinking and in exactly 50,000 years would vanish and cease to exist and so would men.
Well, the good news for my great, great, great, great…grandchildren is the scientists have changed their story.
It turns out – according to last week’s newspaper – the diminutive Y chromosome is actually a tiger that’s evolving “far faster” than just about anything in sight – it’s the primary reason we’re no longer apes while the rest of our chimpanzee cousins are still monkeys.
The best news of all: Scientists now say we men are evolving faster than women. The worst news of all: It sounds like they haven’t entirely ruled out the possibility the chromosome is shrinking – so it’s possible we may make a lot of progress then vanish.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Gary Pearce posted on January 22, 2010 10:04
I’d give the front page of today’s N&O to any young person who aspires to go into politics.
Ruffin Poole, the “little Governor,” gets indicted on 51 counts of corruption.
Poole was Mike Easley’s “go-to guy.” Now he’s the guy the feds go to to get Easley.
John Edwards confesses, says he’s sorry and vows to find another way to serve – so long as it’s well-publicized and photographed, apparently.
It’s an old story, as old as Greek mythology and the Bible.
You fly too high, and you tempt fate. You breathe rarified air, and you lose your mind. You get to thinking you’re above it all, and you fall back to earth.
Take heed.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
Carter Wrenn posted on January 21, 2010 16:14
The other day over in Charlotte Governor Perdue called herself the ‘Jobs, Jobs and More Jobs Governor’ then chirruped she’s the education Governor but it doesn’t look like she’ll be calling herself the ‘Tough Crime Governor’ any time soon.
At least not according to the newspaper and – inadvertently – her Secretary-and-Former- Lobbyist of Health and Human Services Lanier Cansler.
Now what on earth does the Secretary of Health have to do with crime? More than you’d expect.
Because Secretary Cansler’s made such a mess of his department he’s landed a huge problem right in North Carolina’s Sheriffs’ laps – in the form of mental patients. It turns out sheriff’s deputies are having to drive sick mental patients all over North Carolina (say, from Raleigh to Asheville or wherever there’s an empty bed in a mental health ward) due to Cansler’s foibles.
Exactly how big a problem?
According to News & Observer columnist Ruth Sheehan deputies have spent 28,500 days driving Cansler’s patients – instead of investigating crimes.
Secretary Cansler’s turned North Carolina’s sheriffs into chauffeurs and the Jobs, Jobs, Jobs Governor’s up the creek when it comes to crime.
Click here to read and comment on what others are saying
|
|
Purchase Carter's Book:
Spirits of the Air
|
|