Ali (Clay)

People of a certain age remember Muhammad Ali as the 1960 Olympics gold medalist, the brash young heavyweight champion and one of the most divisive people in the divisive decade of the ‘60s. Consider what Donald Trump says today about Muslims, and imagine how controversial it was when Ali, immediately after winning the heavyweight championship…

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So it begins

As Donald Trump doubled down on the race card, Hillary Clinton didn’t just play the woman card, she dealt the whole damn deck. The Clinton campaign waited until she could claim victory to proclaim a historic first for women. And it happened just as a Stanford swimmer, his father and a judge reminded us how…

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Up on the roof

Last evening, a crew was putting a new roof on the house across the way. Three men worked steadily, climbing up and down a tall ladder and steeply pitched roof, hauling up shingles, hammering them in place and trimming the edges. On the ground, two women cleaned up, piling the trash into a wheelbarrow and…

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Bernout?

Hillary Clinton’s campaign will spend today and tomorrow proclaiming that the race is over and prodding Bernie Sanders to give up. She hopes he’ll fold easier than she did eight years ago and than Ted Kennedy did in 1980 (which gave us 12 years of Republican Presidents). You can bet there’s a bitter battle going…

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The Hillary and Donald Show

Fittingly, a polarized nation will have a polarized election between our two most polarizing politicians. It’s a real reality show, with voters telling one, “You’re fired,” and the other, “You’re President.” Trump can play his role in The Apprentice, and Hillary can reprise her bartender role from Saturday Night Live. As always, voters will judge…

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Remembering Barbara Buchanan

For those who remember the late Barbara Buchanan, Governor Jim Hunt’s long-time secretary and right arm, a memorial service will be held for her at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow (Friday) at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh. Here’s a link to the notice. And here’s a tribute I wrote (“Saint Barbara”) after she died last New…

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Translating transgender

Right after the legislature rushed through HB2 and Governor McCrory signed it in the dark of night, a group of friends discussed the issue over lunch in North Raleigh. Male and female, ages 40 to 80, they included a retired judge, a couple of lawyers, several business and political consultants and a couple of family…

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Confusion reigns supreme

Nobody who does politics knows what’s up with politics now. Republicans can’t explain why Trump is winning. Democrats can’t explain why Clinton isn’t winning. Ask candidates, consultants, commentators and the media crowd for explanations, and they all mumble, fumble and stumble. A month ago, everybody thought Republicans were headed for a deadlocked convention and Democrats…

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Don’t do it, Dennis!

I’m appealing to my old friend and comrade-in-arms Dennis Wicker: Don’t solve the HB2 crisis. It’s helping Democrats! Now, I feel bad saying this. Dennis is one of the finest and most public-spirited people in North Carolina. We lost out big time when we didn’t elect him Governor in 2000. Now he – and Art…

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Brought to you by Koch

A sensible Republican legislator (there is such a thing!) was asked why Senate Republicans want to regulate wind and solar energy to death. After all, don’t these people despise government regulation? His answer – more accurately, his suspicion – was: “The Koch Brothers.” The Koch fortune relies heavily on extracting fossil fuels and fouling the…

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