Archive for 2012
Divided We Stand
On the day after, we’re as split emotionally as we are politically. Democrats celebrate President Obama’s historic reelection. America has now twice elected a black man to the highest office. His win validates his policies: the stimulus, auto bailout and financial reform. Health care reform will survive. He will fill Supreme Court vacancies. He…
Read MoreHumorless
Albert, arguing, said, You’re wrong. Folks don’t care if politicians lie and steal – they expect them to do that. What’s more, they’ll vote for a crook who can fix the potholes in their street over a bungling saint every time. I chalked that up to an otherwise garrulous man’s streak of skepticism but…
Read MoreThe Redskins Rule
I woke up yesterday feeling Romney would win but after a dozen calls from people asking about polls in Ohio (not one of which shows Romney leading) I went to bed thinking, Every single poll can’t be wrong. This morning, at the crack of dawn, I got Dick Morris’ predictions saying all the polls…
Read MoreIf Obama Wins…
The baffling question is how Mitt Romney lost. If ever this was a challenger’s race to win, this was it. The economy is bad. Obama is an activist in an anti-government age. He has never done a good job of selling his record. He was not a great candidate this year. He bombed in the…
Read MoreGOP: Grand Obstruction Party
Worst rationale for voting for Romney: maybe Democrats will cooperate with him, unlike Republicans who refused to work with Obama. D.G. Martin asked about that argument when he interviewed Carter, Tom Drew and me on WCHL last week. That rewards obstructionism. It rewards Washington Republicans who set out from the beginning of President…
Read MoreAgreeing With Tedesco
A TAPster who has no use for John Tedesco finds common ground: “Have you taken a good look at one of John Tedesco’s yard signs in his campaign for State Superintendent? At a stoplight today, I finally took a moment to read one. Here’s what it says: “’JOHN TEDESCO: Our Children Deserve Better.’…
Read MoreObama Up by a Field Goal With Three to Go
Confused by the polling superstorm? Confounded by contradictory pundits? Then get a dose of Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight blog. a deep, dense statistical analysis of the presidential race. This week he plumbed the national and battleground-state polls. His conclusion: “Obama remains the favorite in the Electoral College.” More: “Mr. Obama is not a…
Read MoreThe Disappearance of the Machines
For years the Democratic Party’s marched onto political battlefields and vanquished Republicans, winning every Governor’s race in North Carolina for two decades and, except for one brief hiatus, holding control of the State Senate and House in an iron grip for over a century. But this election Pat McCrory’s led Walter Dalton in the…
Read MoreNewby, O’Conner and Judicial Conduct
Here’s more fuel for the Paul Newby redistricting-recusal fire (see my blog yesterday). A lawyer notes recent comments by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Conner and the contents of the N.C. Code of Judicial Conduct. O’Conner, a Republican appointed by Ronald Reagan, has strongly criticized SuperPac participation in state judicial races, the…
Read MoreIt’s Not Complex. It’s Simple.
Last spring an old friend, a pollster, came to Raleigh and predicted without blinking Romney was going to win and I said, Why’s that? and he said, It’s simple. A lot of people who voted for Obama last time won’t vote for him again but I don’t know anyone who voted for McCain who is…
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