Archive for 2015
The Winnowing Out Process
Ben Carson already knew the world was not a kind place but, unfortunately, unkindness reached out and struck him again: A quarter of his supporters abandoned him for Ted Cruz. In a poll in Iowa a month ago Carson led Donald Trump but now he’s dropped into third place – with Cruz (at 23%) and…
Read MoreNo holiday for campaigns
A year from now, either Roy Cooper’s team or Pat McCrory’s team will be sifting through resumes for the next administration. The losers will be polishing their own resumes. Right now, both teams are deep in the same two struggles: raising millions of dollars and wrestling for control of the debate. Soon, we’ll know whether…
Read MoreA Turn of Phrase
After Paris when President Obama stood up and declared America had to summon up the courage to not ‘succumb to fear’ he sounded like Winston Churchill after Dunkirk – his words evoked echoes of long sanctified courage from General Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge to the Alamo to the surrounded…
Read MoreTrump disease
Donald Trump is like a fever in the Republican body politic: a sign of sickness. A lot of Republicans are hoping and praying the fever breaks before the sickness infects the entire body. Trump has owned about a third of the Republican vote in polls since he announced. That one-third gravitated to him when he…
Read MoreSigns
Their facts are the same. But they’re telling two different stories. The Governor’s folks explain how Graeme Keith got his $3 million state contract this way: The Governor met with Keith and Secretary Frank Perry and Keith made his case – that it would be cheaper for his company to provide maintenance for the state…
Read MoreCivilization With Its Pants Down
It was like a curtain parting and catching a glimpse of a backroom filled with politicians – there, sitting in the middle of the hearing, were two of the Governor’s aides testifying and doing their best to wriggle out of the pickle they’d landed in. A businessman – who’d given $12,000 to the Governor’s campaign…
Read MoreIt’s Called Denial
Brussels is on lockdown. Paris has hospital wards full of wounded. Russia has an airliner in pieces. Mali has a blown-up hotel. And, in Kuala Lumpur, President Obama is explaining how terrorists’ attacks on restaurants and concert halls are not the new normal. The five bullet riddled restaurants, the men firing Kalashnikovs, the blown up…
Read MoreCooper and refugees, continued
Several Democratic friends took issue with my defense of Roy Cooper on the refugee issue. One tweeted, “Absolute bull!” Another sidled up to me at the Y: “I agree with your blog 97 percent of the time, but this….” On Facebook, another posted a line-by-line rebuttal. Certainly, I take no offense. My reaction is more…
Read MoreWe’ll Find a Way…to Blow It
When I opened the newspaper and read the Governor explaining he was having a side conversation and didn’t hear Graeme Keith say he wanted a state contract in return for his contributions, I thought, That sounds thin. When Phil Berger called a hearing about Graeme Keith’s state contract, I thought, This could get out of…
Read MoreCooper’s critics get it wrong
Roy Cooper caught flak from the left when he said Washington should pause before admitting 10,000 Syrian refugees and make sure we balance humanitarianism with security. He’s right, and his critics are wrong. And it’s not a case of “he had to do it politically.” It’s the right thing to do. Period. It’s wrong for…
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