For all our disagreements, Carter and I agree on one thing: the value of polls. But we constantly have to explain why – and defend ourselves. Most recent was a delightful dinner discussion with a group of learned and accomplished gentlemen from Chapel Hill. For the first half hour, we were peppered by questions…
Read MoreThe poor Tea Partiers have been getting pounded from pillar to post by the Washington political bosses and reporters and I’ll grant there’s a streak of oddness in the Tea Partiers but they also possess virtues like fighting for lost causes and having the courage of their convictions and besides, when you get right…
Read MoreLast week the newspapers were full of high-sounding stories about the Senate’s gay rights bill. They reported the Senate’s: – Completing the civil rights crusade started fifty years ago. – Letting the bells of freedom ring. – Advancing tolerance. – Barring discrimination. One Illinois Democrat intoned how happy he was the Senate’s ‘fulfilling Abraham…
Read MoreIs Senator Kay Hagan overreacting on Obamacare, or should Democrats rush to the lifeboats and abandon ship? If you go by the N&O website’s headline – “Hagan calls for probe of healthcare website as political support drops” – you’d panic. After all, she had a conference call with reporters to call for investigations of…
Read MoreMitch McConnell sounded a lot like an old-fashioned political boss: He sat down with a columnist from the Wall Street Journal, whipped out a knife, and plunged it right into the Tea Party. To govern, McConnell said, parties must win. And to win they have to run candidates who’re adults. That was a…
Read MorePolymorphous America enjoyed a boom week last week. The Senate passed a bill to show any fellow who doesn’t cotton to hiring transgenders, bisexuals or gay people the error of his ways. And, overjoyed, the President announced a more tolerant America goes hand in hand with a more prosperous America – as if…
Read MoreGovernor McCrory and legislative Republicans have a theory: Cut taxes and regulations, and jobs will flow in. What if they’re wrong – not only on the economics, but also on the politics? What if their theory leads to North Carolina becoming a more Democratic state? The question arises from two recent conversations: one…
Read MoreThe way the Tea Partiers see it, to save the country they have to do to the Washington Republicans what General Sheridan did to the Indians during the Indian Wars. Because when the Tea Partiers say, We can’t vote to raise the Debt Ceiling unless Obama cuts spending – the Republican Bosses say back,…
Read MoreRecent Articles
State Representative Joe John, who died today, looked something like a friendly but fierce bulldog. He…
Read More
Some of my friends didn’t watch Trump’s inauguration. One went to church. One went to every…
Read More
The Democratic Party needs to get tougher, and that’s a job for Democratic women. Sydney Batch…
Read More