Archive for 2012
Jim Hunt and the Dropout Rate
I had to laugh when Republicans claimed credit for North Carolina’s high-school graduation rate topping 80 percent. And I have to stake a claim for Jim Hunt’s role. Over the last six years, the state’s graduation rate has gone up nearly 12 percentage points –from at 68.3 percent in 2006 to 80.2 percent. …
Read MoreRepublicans Embrace Clinton and Bowles
Forget the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Forget the attacks on Erskine Bowles when he ran for Senate. Republicans now desperately embrace Bubba and Bowles. Why? Because they can’t find a respected Republican to cite. Certainly not George W. Bush, who blew up the Clinton-Bowles balanced budget and gave us this recession. Instead, they…
Read MoreLegislators and Lobbyists
A veteran legislative hand and former lobbyist offers this perspective on how Raleigh has changed: “If you want to really understand today’s political world, understand how the politicians view the role of lobbyists. “Democrats see lobbyists as a source of information to help them make a decision. “Republicans see lobbyists as a…
Read MoreWorlds Colliding?
I live and breathe and walk in a middle-aged white male world and (except for Gary) I’ve hardly a friend who can even imagine Obama winning this election – in their bones they just know that can’t happen. My Republican friends have also been euphoric since the last election and they’ve had little or…
Read MoreRyan’s Express
Soon the media will stop hyperventilating about Paul Ryan and get back to Obama vs. Romney. It always happens, unless the VP choice is a disaster. Remember: Sarah Palin’s selection put the Republicans ahead four years ago, until…well, you know. For now, we sophisticated analysts ask: “What does the pick say” about the presidential…
Read MoreGOP Sex Change 2012
I can’t wait to weigh in on Paul Ryan as VP. Meantime, here’s a revealing guest blog from a female TAPster: Four years ago, the Brain Trust of the Republican Party decided the way to offset the Obama Change Machine was with an unknown female Governor from a far-flung, sparsely populated state. It was a…
Read MoreGovernment on the Cheap
As I ease back into the post-vacation routine, hereâs a guest submission from a TAPster: The recent crash of a Charlotte-based C-130 aircraft while fighting wildfires in the western US makes a sad, revealing point about the mindset of our government today. That aircraft was a cargo plane, but had been modified to…
Read MoreAn Unexpected Service
Until Saturday Mitt Romney’s road to the White House was straightforward – the election was a debate about Barack Obama’s failure to turn the economy around. That has now changed. The election will still be about Obama’s failure but it will also be about the Republicans’ cure for that failure: Paul Ryan’s budget. …
Read MoreToo Much Government
The headline on John Dresher’s ‘tweet’ (“Wake Forest Baptist cited for violating federal regulations after monkey’s escape”) was more temptation than I could resist – I clicked on the link to the story imagining a ‘foot washing’ Baptist with a monkey and what the monkey could have done that landed him in trouble but, it…
Read MoreAn Odd Fact
Whenever the question of how to improve education in North Carolina comes up the Democrats are a paragon of consistency: The solution, they say, is to spend more money. Now, right or wrong, the Democrats are dead serious and whenever Republicans (who have a different idea about solutions to problems) don’t spend more on…
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