Hillary’s Makeover

It’s a baby-boomer politician’s worst nightmare: The New York Times gets holds of personal letters you wrote to a close friend back when you were a self-absorbed college student trying on different personas and personalities. It happened to Hillary Clinton Sunday. This came right after the national media dissected the political and fashion significance of…

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Playing the Outside Game

North Carolina’s Realtors spent $700,000 on a media campaign against the “home tax.” The campaign failed. Why? The Realtors had a good idea: Mobilize public opinion to change legislative votes. But they didn’t go far enough. Carter is the master of this strategy. He did it for Farmers for Fairness (hog farmers) in the ‘90s.…

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A Portrait of America from the Morning Newspaper

Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez – according to the press this morning – mislead to the Senate yesterday. (Even one Republican Senator, Arlen Specter, asked Gonzalez, incredulously, “Do you expect me to believe that?”) The House of Representatives – according to the press – is about to bring contempt charges against President Bush for illegally hiding…

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Beat This?

When I read The News and Observer headline – “Tax Enriches Cellular Carriers” –I had to ask, ‘How does a tax enrich anyone but the government?’ The answer turned out to be simple. The government collects a tax on your phone bill then pays the money to telephone companies (in theory for providing phone service…

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Big Business a Big Target

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got the most attention after this week’s Democratic debate. But John Edwards had the most pointed message. And it’s why he remains a big threat to the Big Two. The first two questions he got, almost the first words out of Edwards’ mouth were “big insurance companies, big pharmaceutical companies…

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Lawyer Strikes Gold

An enterprising Wilmington attorney read how the Attorney General of New Jersey won a settlement from Sears for overcharging customers for wheel alignments and promptly brought his own class action lawsuit against Sears (The News and Observer, 7-23-07). And Sears promptly settled. The lawyer received $950,000 in fees. And Sears consumers received $2,402. (Not each,…

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CACs and Campaign Volunteers

There was a short story in The News and Observer last week about the CACs (Raleigh ‘neighborhood groups’) asking the City Council for $25,000 to recruit new members. As a practical matter these semi-official groups have long since turned into adjuncts of Mayor Meeker’s political apparatus. The Council giving them $25,000 to recruit members is…

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The Bush Who Cried Wolf

President Bush now claims that intelligence shows we’re fighting Osama’s Al-Qaeda in Iraq. It’s his latest justification for the war: We either fight them in Iraq or in Illinois. But who believes him? Bush and his cronies cooked the intelligence to get us into Iraq in the first place. Does he think we’ll believe him…

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A Job with a Great Future?

The News & Observer says: “Perhaps the most competitive contest in North Carolina next year will be the one for state treasurer.” I’ve counted six Democrats and three Republicans being mentioned for the race. It’s no mystery why. Richard Moore has shown that the Treasurer’s Office has the keys to a treasure chest full of…

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The Great Democratic Debate

Last night on CNN and the Democratic Candidates ‘You-Tubed’ their way through the latest debate. Afterwards the pundits said Obama won. Then they said Hillary won. Then they said Edwards and Biden won. So much for pundits. Here’s my two cents worth. I hate to say it but I thought John Edwards won. Hands down.…

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