Cue the Ugly Campaign

Barack Obama got a taste this week of what’s coming. The picture of him decked out in Somali gear. The McCain emcee who repeatedly called him “Barack Hussein Obama.” The Louis Farrakhan question at the debate. It’s time for the Obama campaign to strap on the seat belts. It’s going to be a rough ride.…

Read More

Moore Corruption for Moore?

It seems, or at least appears from reading the newspapers, that each successive generation of Democratic leaders in North Carolina is less concerned about rooting out corruption. Former ‘Governor for Life’ Jim Hunt, not my favorite elected official, may have occasionally tolerated a little bit of what a Tammany Hall politician once called ‘honest graft’…

Read More

Hilary’s Blues

In the beginning was the word. Senator Barack Obama’s rhetoric has accomplished what we Republicans have failed to do for years. He’s undone Hilary Clinton. It understates Obama’s achievement to simply say his rhetoric is articulate. To a certain, surprising, extent American politicians all oddly seem to sound the same. Sometimes listening to, say, Hillary,…

Read More

‘Dirty Harry’ vs. ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’

The other night, lying in bed, I stopped clicking long enough to watch an old black and white movie. Talk of the Town it’s like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, only with Ronald Coleman appointed to the Supreme Court rather than Jimmy Stewart appointed to the Senate. The good guys (and Jean Arthur, in both…

Read More

The Circus Might Not Be Coming

We apparently got all excited over nothing. North Carolina’s presidential primary may not matter after all. If Hillary Clinton loses Texas next Tuesday – as looks increasingly likely – the air will go out of our balloon. Obama campaign insiders are confident about Texas – and expect a close race in Ohio. Clinton campaign insiders…

Read More

Iraq in October

Imagine this: Barack Obama and John McCain are debating in October. Senator McCain says: ‘As I said at the time, early in the war we made mistakes in Iraq. But we’ve learned. We’re on the right track. The surge is working.’ Obama says: ‘It that’s correct then tell me one thing – give me one…

Read More

Obi-wan Obama

Senator Barack Obama told supporters Sunday in Ohio: “I don’t think NAFTA has been good for American’s, and I never have.” But, four years ago, during his Senate race in Illinois, “Obama touted the benefits from United States exports under NAFTA” and the Associated Press reported “that Obama favored pursuing trade deals such as NAFTA.”…

Read More

Tarred and Feathered

North Carolina chicken king Edgar Marvin Johnson must feel like he’s been tarred and feathered by The Charlotte Observer. If the Observer’s reports are correct it’s hard to imagine even Johnson’s own mother buying a chicken from his House of Raeford Farms. According to the Observer, Johnson is akin to the worst villain Upton Sinclair…

Read More

The Liberals Turn on Meeker

You can’t help but be intrigued – if by nothing else – by the irrationality of local politics. The last three elections Mayor Meeker has swept himself, and his allies, into office as no-growth, anti-evil developer, pro-sugar plum fairy candidates. But now we learn – from a charter-member of the Mayor’s anti-growth club – liberal…

Read More

Drescher Calls Out Easley

Since Claude Sitton retired from The News & Observer, North Carolina editors have been an invisible lot. John Drescher may be changing that pattern. Drescher, who recently became executive editor at The N&O, publicly called out Governor Easley twice this weekend. In his column and on the air, Drescher challenged Easley to answer questions about…

Read More