Ringing the School Bell

One of Walter Dalton’s biggest challenges is winning Independent women voters in the Charlotte media market. How does he do that? Take them to school.   Dalton can go after on education Pat McCrory two ways.   One, McCrory will rubber-stamp whatever the legislature does to the public schools.   Senator Josh Stein did a…

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Digging the Hole Deeper

The State Medicaid Department has a Public Integrity Section to root out fraud which sounds fine only according to the State Auditor the department paid IBM and SAS $8 million to help find fraud but then only recovered $427,000 – so, at the end of the day, instead of fighting fraud the department compounded fraud…

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A Conundrum

Mitt Romney’s running an ad that shows Barack Obama saying, If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that, and it sure looks and sounds and smells like the truth but Obama says there’s not a word of truth in it – that Romney edited a piece of video of his speech, took what…

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Grabby GOP

Republican legislators may be anti-government, but they’re obviously not anti-grabbing government goodies for themselves.   Ex-Rep. Stephen LaRoque ran a program that received federal money. Now he faces federal charges of money laundering and theft from the program. Among those who got money from him are two Republican colleagues: former Senator Debbie Clary and Rep.…

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Unintended Consequences

Republicans in the state legislature cut Planned Parenthood’s state funding by $125,000 but, to give the devil its due, in the blink of an eye Planned Parenthood turned a cut into a three-fold blessing by persuading the Obama Administration to give it $426,000 – as one Republican legislator said, I guess we can thank our…

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One, Two, Three

One: Representative Stephen LaRoque was indicted. Two: Speaker Thom Tillis advised LaRoque to resign. Three: LaRoque didn’t. Four:  Tillis appointed a bi-partisan committee to investigate. Five:  LaRoque resigned. One. Two. Three. No deals. No double-talk. No dodging. Scandal over.  

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Mitt’s Horses**t

It’s one thing for Mitt Romney to dis the Brits at their Olympics. It’s another thing altogether to distance himself from his wife’s role in the Olympics. Together these are disturbing signs of a man who doesn’t want us to see who he really is.   Romney’s disastrous NBC interview in London got attention mostly…

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Fast Food Politics

Two of my guilty pleasures are Snoopy’s hot dogs and Chick-Fil-A. So what’s a good Democrat to do when the Snoopy’s owner attacks President Obama and Chick-Fil-A’s owner condemns gay marriage?   I’m reminded of McDonald’s some years back. The founder and owner, Ray Kroc, was a big buddy and big contributor to Richard Nixon.…

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Context, Please

A Democrat concerned about Obama’s allegedly anti-small business statement (“you didn’t build that”) asks: “What did he really say? The quote sounds bad.”   It does indeed, and Republicans have jumped all over it.   Obama made the statement on July 13, in a campaign speech in Roanoke, Va. Here’s the full quote:   “If…

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Dueling Polls

The Republican (Civitas) poll says Pat McCrory leads Walter Dalton 47-37. The Democratic (N.C. Citizens for Progress) poll says McCrory’s lead, once 12 points, has been cut in half – from 46-34 in April to 45-39 in July.   So what does this really tell us?   First, McCrory’s five-year campaign has given him an…

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