All in One Week

She said Yes. Then No. Then Yes, again.   Four years ago, running for Congress, Renee Ellmers told voters she was a nurse who had “held the hands of new born infants.” Yes, she said, she was Pro-Life.   Then, last week, she said No to banning abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy. The idea,…

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Elizabeth Warren

Most of us older white conservatives just naturally see a Democratic Senator from Massachusetts who taught at Harvard and figure – barring a miracle – she’s got to be a liberal so it came as a shock the other night when a young conservative posted a link to one of Elizabeth Warren’s speeches with one…

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Chasing Pat from the Left

The liberal folks over at ProgressNC let fly with a broadside at the Governor about his ethics, then let fly again with a press conference and, by then, they had the folks at the Charlotte Observer so stirred up they let fly with broadside of their own asking, Was Pat McCrory fibbing then, or is…

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Chasing Pat from the Right

After being blasted by the liberals (for hiding conflicts of interest) Governor McCrory ran head-on into a second broadside from the opposite direction: Tired of Medicaid wrecking havoc on its budget the State Senate served notice on the Governor his time is up – he’s had his chance to fix Medicaid and failed so the…

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Just a Matter of Time?

Awhile back Ted Cruz got some unusual praise from two odd places.   “I think he’s the most talented and fearless Republican politician I’ve seen in the last 30 years,” James Carville said in an interview on ABC. Then, on his TV program, Dick Morris compared Cruz to Ronald Reagan.   When Jeb Bush and…

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The Comeback Kid

President Obama’s speech last night showed he has a knack for coming back after a setback – and a knack for the comeback quip.   Three things about the night: (1) How Obama framed the debate (2) the partisan debate over bipartisanship and (3) the split-screen social media experience of watching political events like what…

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Party Pooper

There’s good news and there’s bad news about the true state of the N.C. Democratic Party.   The bad news is that the actual financial situation is worse than it looks. Much of the $42,700 that the party has on hand belongs to the House and Senate caucuses.   That’s also the good news, because…

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Silence of the Rams

Is there something in the water in Chapel Hill that keeps University big shots from giving straight answers? The same lockjaw that keeps the UNC-CH athletic-academic scandal on the front pages has now spread to the Board of Governors.   The board’s non-speak/double-speak non-explanation of why Tom Ross was forced out leaves only one logical…

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Righteousness

The mystery isn’t how he died; it’s the Department of Prisons’ silence.   Michael Kerr was in and out of trouble with the law for a decade – he was a thief, assaulted a woman and tried to outrun a policeman in a patrol car – then two crimes committed against him left him on…

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0-3 Start for Pat?

On their first day in session, legislative leaders sent a message to Governor McCrory: We’re back, and we’re in charge.   McCrory has talked about three things in recent weeks: He wants more money for economic incentives, he may want to expand Medicaid and he wants a Dix deal with Raleigh (not Charlotte).   In…

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