Quick. Somebody get Hillary Clinton a verb. A whole bunch of them. She needs them to reach swing voters – millennials and Trump-averse Independents and Republicans. They don’t know what she wants to DO as President, so they suspect she just wants to BE President. Verbs connote action, movement and progress. No verbs =…
Read MoreIt’s hard to find a more bull-headed fellow walking the earth than a UNC professor dead-set on upholding the virtues of political correctness: He’s 100% for diversity and 100% against discrimination right up to the moment someone disagrees with him. The other day the UNC Faculty Council gave the legislature and Senator Phil Berger down…
Read MoreTrump blustered. Hillary smiled back unperturbed. Hillary talked about studies and facts and quotes. Trump didn’t seem to remember what he’d said in the past about Iraq, Libya, or Vladimir Putin. “Donald,” Hillary said, “believes global warming is a hoax perpetuated by the Chinese.” “I did not. I did not. I do not say that.…
Read MoreTrump blew it. Bigly. One hundred million Americans watched last night for one reason: to see if they could see Trump as President. But they saw a bully. A braggart. And a blowhard. He easily could have won the debate – and maybe the election. All he had to do was pull a Reagan. Be…
Read MoreA Washington Post reporter asked whether Republican legislators passed election laws to require voter I.D.s and limit early voting to keep African Americans from voting. Back in 2010, before Republicans redrew the State House and Senate districts, there were 98 Democrats in the State Legislature. After redistricting, there were 60. Before redistricting, 33 African-Americans…
Read MoreTo be great, politicians – like athletes, performers and mythic heroes – must rise to moments of great challenge. Hillary Clinton’s moment comes in Monday’s debate. The merciless beast Momentum has turned against her. It was with her for several weeks after the conventions. Then the media and the commentariat grew tired of talking about…
Read More“Is HB2 the worst self-inflicted wound in the history of North Carolina politics?” That’s what a young whippersnapper asked at breakfast the other day. (When you’re my age, you get a lot of questions about history.) I couldn’t think of a worse one. Terry Sanford’s food tax? It hurt him politically, but Sanford didn’t push…
Read MoreAnother police shooting of a black man. Another city ripped by unrest, protests and, the media says, “riots.” This time it’s Charlotte. This time Charlotte is in the news for something other than bathrooms. Carter’s blog on this, by the way, is thoughtful and insightful. I commend it to you. So often in cases like…
Read MoreYesterday two reporters asked me if the riots in Charlotte were going to have a ‘political impact.’ On the radio, while driving to work, I’d heard about the riots but hadn’t read any news reports and didn’t know the answer—then last night at home I turned on the television and the second night of riots…
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