Obama Gets the Willies?

I’m not sure what’s worse: ‘International Celebrity’ Barack Obama not visiting wounded soldiers in Germany – or watching John McCain jump up and down and howl about it. This saga in American politics started bad and went downhill. Obama tripped over his own feet, then tripped again getting up, then McCain leaped on his back…

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Polls and Cell Phones

A very smart (by definition) fan of this blog asked a question I could not answer: “How can telephone polls be accurate when so many people – especially young people – have cell phones and no landlines?” So I posed the question to three smart pollsters (Democratic and Republican). Here are their answers (with only…

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Bev Calls the Kettle Black

You’ve got to admit it. Bev Perdue’s got chutzpah. The N&O just reported she’s raised $376,293 from PACs to McCrory’s $62,257. What’s she doing? She’s blasting away at Pat McCrory – for raising money from PACs. Maybe McCrory ought to just throw up his hands and say, ‘Okay, Bev, let’s stop right here. I’ll gladly…

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‘PUMAs’ Bear Their Claws

You may have heard of “cougars” – older women who pursue younger men. Now meet “Pumas.” It stands for “Party Unity, My Ass.” They are Hillary Clinton supporters who are still angry. Sign-wielding Pumas confronted DNC Chair Howard Dean when he was in North Carolina last week. They have a website: www.puma08.com. In North Carolina,…

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Reagan and Obama

Here’s why, in political campaigns, Dick Morris was fun to work with. Dick could look at a poll and within ten seconds get ten ideas. I’ve only met three people like that: Tom Ellis, Arthur Finkelstein, and Dick Morris. Once, sitting in a meeting, Dick was arguing for one of his ideas with a New…

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What Would Martin Luther King Make of This?

While Kay Hagan’s singing Kumbaya with Republicans, I must be getting more partisan. Because I’m having trouble seeing the Democrats’ side of things. Senator Richard Burr recently sponsored a bill saying the Veterans Administration can’t declare a veteran ‘nuts’ (actually the politically correct term is ‘mentally deficient’) – unless a judge agrees. Burr’s bill sounds…

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Bev and the Badgers

There aren’t too many surprises in the contribution reports from Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory. McCrory’s money is largely coming from Charlotte and the usual Republican suspects. Perdue’s money is largely coming from the East and the usual Democratic suspects. McCrory has Duke Energy, NASCAR and the Downtown Charlotte bank and brokerage boys. Perdue has…

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Obama in Berlin

I’ve decided to strike another blow for partisanship. Because Barack Obama’s really beginning to trouble me. Not content running for President of the United States, he’s now running for President or Prime Minister or whatever it is in Europe too. And his appeal seems to be intercontinental. Two hundred thousand Germans poured into a Berlin…

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Turning Point?

When the histories of the 2008 presidential race are written, last week may be seen as the turning point. No, the polls won’t show it yet. They may look more like 1980, which was a dead heat between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter until everything broke Reagan’s way the final weekend. Then, as now, voters…

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Kay Hagan Rewrites a Little History

Sometimes you have to wonder what planet politicians come from. Everyone living on Planet Earth knows the North Carolina Senate isn’t anything like a summer camp of fellowship and bi-partisan comity. For a decade Democratic wheelhorse Marc Basnight has passed down orders and the boys have lined up like a cadre of linebackers and rolled…

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