Counting Her Lucky Stars

The Democrats usually don’t experience much stress when it comes to recruiting candidates. They’ve got two behemoths running for Governor. They’ve got candidates running against Congressmen Robin Hays and Walter Jones. And they’ve even got a candidate running for Congress in the Tenth District – where a Democrat hasn’t been elected in forty years. But…

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Subsidizing Singapore

The flap over the state giving $40 million in incentives to Senator Tony Rand’s – one assumes – friends at Goodyear Tire and Rubber just took another strange turn. After Rand’s bill – giving Goodyear a good-sized chunk of state pork – passed it was promptly vetoed by Governor Easley. Then the legislature returned to…

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Kay and the Gay Factor

A Democrat poses this question about Kay Hagan’s run for U.S. Senate: “It is going to be interesting to see how voters respond to Hagan’s candidacy and whether she can dance around the question (or put it to bed) of whether she is running b/c Neal is gay. If you think back to the Sanders/Gantt…

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The ACLU Speaks Out on Foot Tapping and Hand Gestures

A few years ago, I made an issues ad criticizing then State Representative Richard Morgan. Of course, Richard didn’t like being criticized any more than anyone else – so he filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections claiming the group airing the ad was violating state elections law and to make a long…

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The Real Issue for Perdue and Moore

If Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue stop sniping over resumes, degrees and ages, they will see the real target in the Governor’s race. And they can remind voters why North Carolina needs a Democratic governor next year. Republicans always say that North Carolina’s schools are failing. Their solution, always, is to starve the schools of…

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Student Video Trips Up Edwards Campaign

John Edwards’s campaign staffers blew it when they blew up over a UNC journalism student’s video story. No more than few thousand people would have seen the original post on YouTube. After the campaign went nuclear, hundreds of thousands saw it. It’s a double whammy for Edwards. First a minor story gets more attention. Then…

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Mercedes Drove Us to Incentives

The News & Observer’s recent examination of economic incentives said “attitudes have changed” here since North Carolina lost Mercedes to Alabama in 1993. Actually, attitudes changed because we lost Mercedes. The story accurately noted that North Carolina didn’t get the Mercedes plant because we didn’t match Alabama’s incentives. The N&O noted that my old boss,…

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Bush’s Shadow

The Supreme Commander of the U.S. Army in Iraq – from June 2003 through June 2004 – said last week President Bush’s handing of the war has been “incompetent.” Not mistaken. Or flawed. Incompetent. The spinmeisters went to work overnight saying General Ricardo Sanchez’s has a case of sour grapes because he didn’t get a…

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Electrifying ElectriCities

Carter and I started Talking About Politics when we become intrigued by how blogs create an alternative form of political communication. It’s happening on our own site right now – without either of us lifting a finger. Click here to read a post that somebody (we don’t know who) put on our site about ElectriCities…

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Rough Sailing Ahead for Hillary

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is living on a diet of fingernails. The Main Stream Media (MSM) and the Democratic Establishment have proclaimed her the winner. But John Edwards asks the apt question: Did I miss something? Did Iowa already vote? Did we already pick a nominee? History says that no Democratic front-runner sails to the nomination…

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