Archive for October 2010
Memo to Paul Coble
I don’t care for Paul Coble’s politics, but I like him personally. So I’m giving him some advice about his TV ads: lose the rich furnishings. I regret I don’t have a link to the ads. Couldn’t find it anywhere. The ads are short – maybe 10 or 15 seconds. Paul is talking…
Read MorePoll Tells the Tale
I love polls. When I did campaigns, I spent hours digging through them. Numbers don’t lie, and they tell you what’s obscured in the political blather. The latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll lays out clearly what’s happening in this election. The headline is that voters prefer a Republican Congress over a Democratic one by 50-43…
Read MoreDarth Vader Comes to Raleigh
There’s a scene in the movie Erin Brockovich where Julia Roberts runs head on into the epitome of an oily corporate lawyer who represents Pacific Gas and Electric. In real life the lawyer who represented PG&E was Rene Tatro, who’s known as ‘The Darth Vader of the environmental movement.’ Attorney Tatro is now…
Read MoreHow the Government Really Works: A Train Wreck V
So here’s what has happened: Secretary Lanier Cansler promised legislators he could cut the Medicaid Home Care $50 million (because, he said, the 45% of the patients were cheats) – if they’d let him give out a no bid contract to one of his former clients. But it turned out only 3% of the…
Read MoreThe Obama Enigma
D.G. Martin was interviewing Carter and me for “Who’s Talking” on WCHL radio when we began discussing the topic that soon will dominate political debate: WOWW – Where Obama Went Wrong. Was it the policy or the politics (see “Blaming the Messenger” below)? Was it the economy? Was in getting in bed with Congress?…
Read MoreEarly Warning
There’s only one way Democrats can interpret the early results from early voting in North Carolina: It’s bad. According to Democracy North Carolina, “one-stop early voting is off to a record-shattering pace for midterm elections and the largest group casting ballots are white Republican men.” Another way to look at it: So far,…
Read MoreBlame the Editor
Here’s a caricature of how government works North Carolina style: The Chairman of the Wildlife Commission, who naturally got his job by giving money to Governor Perdue, orders the Commission’s CEO to write a nice article about the Governor and publish it in the next edition of their magazine and mail it out to hunters…
Read MoreBlaming the Messenger
I feel Robert Gibbs’ pain. In a New York Times magazine article Sunday, President Obama said, “We probably spent too much time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right.” Gibbs, the White House press secretary, noted ruefully in the article, “I haven’t been at a policy-problem meeting…
Read MoreHow the Government Really Works: A Train Wreck IV
The Rest Home lobby must have one of the most powerful – or lucky – lobbies in North Carolina. A few years ago, Congress passed a bill to give states the flexibility to care for elderly Medicaid patients in their homes instead of in Rest Homes and almost every state jumped at the opportunity…
Read MoreShameless Self-Promotion
Rick Martinez, news director with WPTF radio (680AM), taped an interview with me this week about my biography of Governor Jim Hunt. It airs on Carolina Newsmaker Sunday at 7 am (which he said is one of their highest-rated shows. Go figure). I confess I had some reservations before the interview. I had never…
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