John Fennebresque is the political equivalent of Nepal. He sits squarely astride the two giant, grinding tectonic plates of North Carolina’s political world as he leads the UNC Board of Governors’ search for a new President. This demands leadership skills, political skills and communications skills. And Fennebresque didn’t exactly get off to a great start…
Read MoreA TAPster has an elegant solution to two problems facing our nation today: “Why don’t we take all the biker gangs from Waco and ship them to Iraq with their bikes to take on ISIS. If they win we win. If they lose we win. It can’t get any better than that.”
Read MoreWhen you’ve been in politics some 40 years, as Carter and I have, you’ve heard a few great speeches and many bad ones. And written some of both (we like to think). Which must be why the N&O’s John Drescher turned to us for his column on “what makes a good speech.” John was reacting…
Read MoreBritish elections are entertaining. For Democrats this year, they’re also instructive. First the entertainment. On election night, all candidates for a Parliamentary seat stand on stage whilst the results are announced, like American Idol contestants waiting to see if they won or lost. They all wear big badges with their party colors. Then they all…
Read MoreFrom time to time I post blogs from an anonymous TAPster. His offerings are welcome and refreshing, welcome because they save me work, and refreshing because they offer the perspective of a seasoned observer of the Raleigh scene, as well as a certain inspired looniness that comes over a man who is all but retired…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory says our universities’ mission is to put butts in jobs. Bill Friday believed their mission is to set minds and spirits soaring so they can make North Carolina a better place. The contrast between that blinkered view and that broad vision was never captured better than in Jane Stancill’s remarkable story Sunday about…
Read MoreLittle White Lies. Outright Lies. Artful Lies. Once a bartender told a sailor on leave for the weekend, There’re a lot of prostitutes down at the bus station. Say hello to Anna if you see her. Listening you’d think Anna was a prostitute but you’d be wrong: She was the sixty year-old clerk working behind…
Read MoreThere are two competing political narratives on the state’s budget picture. The question is whether voters will buy either one. When a budget surplus was predicted last week, Democrats and Republicans pounced. “Chicken Littles on the left loudly cried North Carolina would lose so much tax revenue that students wouldn’t have teachers, roads wouldn’t be…
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