Archive for September 2007
Change This Channel
The images are depressingly familiar, six years after 9/11: Replays of the terrorist attacks on America Osama bin Laden, now mysteriously dark-bearded, on our TV screens again, threatening and taunting us still An impressively bemedaled and beribboned general warning Congress against a quick withdrawal from Iraq. Once again, we’re reminded of George Bush’s folly and…
Read MoreBeverly Lake’s Revenge
What is it about Wake Forest and the public schools? Fifty years ago, the town north of Raleigh (then home of Wake Forest College) gave rise to Dr. I. Beverly Lake, the segregationist who ran against Terry Sanford for Governor in 1960. (When Lake was introduced at rallies, the speaker would say: “I don’t know…
Read MoreThompson Dramatized GOP Weakness
Fred Thompson is a big, imposing guy with a big, authoritative voice. Too bad he doesn’t have anything to say. All his voice is booming so far is empty platitudes. If he’s the Republicans’ next Ronald Reagan, they are in more trouble than I thought. Reagan had a message: Strengthen America. Tear down this wall.…
Read MoreIn Defense of Incentives
All the candidates for Governor – Democrats and Republicans – now say they support Governor Easley’s veto of the Goodyear incentives bill. Are incentives that politically radioactive? I’m not sure they are. But the supporters of incentives are doing a damn poor job of making the case. The way to win the argument is to…
Read MoreAn Inconvenient Truth
There are hucksters in just about every business. But science is sort of a, modern sacred cow. Scientists are generally accorded to respect once reserved for Popes and Bishops when it comes to the purity of their motives. So it comes as a shock that one of the corner-stone scientific ‘proofs’ of Global Warming turns…
Read MoreDole-drums
A well-placed North Carolina Republican has been telling friends lately that he doesn’t think Senator Elizabeth Dole will run for reelection if she draws a tough opponent. As Richard Nixon said to Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, there comes a time to get off the pot. The Democratic candidate who comes out strong first may find…
Read MoreCorporate Democrats, Unite!
Another sign that North Carolina Democrats aren’t taking the increasingly anti-corporate tone of the national party is a fundraiser Richard Moore is holding in Raleigh this month. The host is John Kane, of North Hills fame. (Now that Moore has come out against incentives for Goodyear, maybe Kane can lobby him for his parking-deck subsidy.)…
Read MoreAttacking Hillary?
Sometimes political campaigns are counter initiative. What you’re sure makes sense turns out not to make sense at all. John and Elizabeth Edwards are part of one campaign, but both seem headed in different directions. John Edwards wants his campaign to be about getting out of Iraq and if he can make that the dominant…
Read MoreBush’s Political Surge
The military surge may or may not be working in Iraq. But George Bush’s political surge appears to be working at home. His surprise Labor Day visit demonstrates the power of the President – even a poll-ravaged lame-duck President – to command the political heights on foreign affairs. How can this be? How can a…
Read MoreBrave New World of the Gubernatorial Veto
I blogged not long ago about the veto being Jim Hunt’s gift to Mike Easley – and all future Governors. Now – with Easley’s veto of the Goodyear-incentives bill – we begin to see what veto power really means. Brave New World, Chapter One: So much for being a lame duck. Easley may be ineffective…
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