Archive for January 2010
Wal-Mart and Afghanistan
My friend down in Columbia, Chris Neely, is a captain in the ‘Swamp Fox’ Field Artillery of the South Carolina National Guard. And he just got called up. My first thought – other than the obvious concern about danger – when he told me he’s going to be spending the next year in…
Read More‘Saint Elizabeth’
As the N&O noted this morning, excerpts from the book Game Change have tarnished Elizabeth Edwards’ halo. People have been reluctant to criticize Elizabeth. She lost a son. She is battling cancer. And she suffered the public humiliation of her husband’s infidelity. But she long had a reputation for being startlingly harsh with people,…
Read MoreThe Edwards Syndrome
The new revelations about John Edwards’ 2008 campaign – from the book Game Change by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin – raise this question: Didn’t he learn anything in his Senate race? When Edwards ran in 1998 – and I was one of his strategists – we struggled with how to handle the firestorm…
Read MorePerdue, Newspaper Reporters, and Adultery
It’s hard to get your arms around but Bev Perdue has surpassed Hunt when it comes to taking stands on both sides of issues. Our Governor’s taken firm stands on both sides of spending cuts. Tax increases. Offshore drilling. Negative political ads. And now – oddly enough – adultery. It seems our State Highway…
Read MoreABC, DMV, SHP…
Is everybody in state government crooked? No, they’re not. But the average person might think so when – in one skinny issue of the paper – they see ABC boards investigated, the ex-DMV director accused of wiretapping and the State Highway Patrol questioned about missing records and sexual misconduct. Does this ever end?…
Read MoreFight Back
Democrats need to stop wringing their hands and worrying about November. And start fighting back on health care. Here’s the message: This year – over the opposition of every single Republican in Congress – we did something that Americans have needed for 50 years. When the health-care bill passes, every American will be…
Read MorePolitical Cycles
There is a natural rhythm that usually governs politics. And it suggests that 2010 will be a Republican year. But not so fast. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. wrote The Cycles of American History about those political rhythms. In recent years – as both parties have migrated to their political extremes – the cycle…
Read MoreThe Roots of Health Care Reform
As the health-care battle resumes in Washington, some history may be just what the doctor ordered. Most people believe this battle traces back to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s failed effort to reform health care in 1993-1994. Actually, it goes back to 1991 – and a now-forgotten special election for the U.S. Senate in…
Read MoreWho’d Have Imagined It?
In 2008 while running for Governor, Bev Perdue said: Then, this year, she put a lobbyist in charge of health care, gave him the green light to spend $250 million to pass out no bid contracts (many to his former clients), then gave him her blessing to cut health care to thousands of…
Read MoreAbolish Resolutions
It sounds un-American, but I’m adamantly opposed to New Year’s resolutions. First of all, all the media stories are tiresome: How to start a new exercise routine – or a new life. How to lose 20 pounds. How to change your diet. How to run that ultra-marathon across the Sahara that you’ve always dreamed…
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