A TAPster who pays attention to politics and high school football notes that James Hunt High and Terry Sanford High played each other in the first round of the state 3AA football playoffs. The Hunt Warriors beat the Sanford Bulldogs 35-21 on November 15. Since then, Hunt has also beaten West Brunswick and Douglas…
Read MoreTo show he isn’t “obsessed with his image,” Governor McCrory sent a response to the Charlotte Observer that showed he is, in fact, obsessed with his image. This calls to mind Virginia Sen. William L. Scott. In 1974, New Times magazine labeled Scott the country’s “dumbest” congressman. Scott called a press conference to deny…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory certainly isn’t the only politician “obsessed with his image.” But he shows it more than any politician I’ve ever seen. Read Taylor Batten’s remarkable and revealing account of his hour-and-40-minute interview with the Governor. Batten, editor of the Charlotte Observer’s editorial page (which endorsed McCrory for governor) wrote: “This is a man…
Read MoreSo long as politicians exercise – and abuse – power, we need the press and professors around to question power. But it looks like Republicans in Raleigh want to shut down questions and shut up critics. This after Governor McCrory promised to run an open, transparent administration. First, McCrory’s highly paid PR flacks…
Read MoreThanks to Senator Bob Rucho for serving up a heaping holiday helping of hilarity: “JFK could have been the founder and leader of the Tea Party.” Let’s let JFK answer himself. In the 1960 campaign, he said: “I have yet to hear of one single original piece of new, progressive legislation of benefit to…
Read MoreIt wasn’t exactly subtle the other morning when the newspaper ran two stories side by side: One about a single mother who works all day and then works three additional jobs nights and weekends to make ends meet – and a second story about the Director of the Raleigh Housing Authority. It turns out every year…
Read MoreIt’s the best holiday of all. It’s food, family, friends and football. It’s an all-too-brief pause before the mindless consumerism, stressed-out shopping and forced cheer of Christmas. Only Americans could come up with Thanksgiving. Like July 4th, it’s all ours and All-American. July 4th is food, family, friends and the beach. But it’s for…
Read MoreAs if I didn’t get enough JFK last week, I’m reading a new book about how Kennedy, in his last months, was growing into and getting better at the roles of President, politician and persuader-in-chief. If only President Obama could summon some of that mojo now on Obamacare. The book (“JFK’s Last Hundred…
Read MoreThere he goes again: “We didn’t shorten early voting, we compacted the calendar.” Now, that’s positively Orwellian. And it’s the latest in a long string of eye-catching – and embarrassing – statements by Governor McCrory. Two weeks ago, John Frank wrote in the N&O: “At least a dozen times in his first 10 months…
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