After receiving a typically enthusiastic introduction from former Governor Jim Hunt Tuesday, Governor McCrory said, “Note to staff: Never have me speak after Jim Hunt again.” Here’s another note he should send them: Know my audience. McCrory was speaking at N.C. State’s Emerging Issues Form on manufacturing. He seemed to think he was…
Read MoreAfter Tea Party candidates rolled to victory in 2010 they headed for Congress to cut spending, and late one night, six months later, President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner announced they’d made a deal to pass the biggest annual spending cut in history. Now, two years later, it turns out the cuts were…
Read MoreThanks to the 2012 campaign and Mitt Romney, President Obama has found his voice. That gives him a big advantage over Republicans the next two years. For all his writing and oratorical skills, Obama never found a way in his first term to effectively tell his story – and sell his message. That led…
Read MoreSome Republicans seem determined to be “the stupid party,” in Bobby Jindal’s memorable phrase. Like U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx. The Sunday New York Times took a look at how some students today pay for college. The story focused on Steve Boedefeld, an Appalachian State University student who wants to avoid graduating with a…
Read MoreWar’s broken out in Raleigh. The Republican County Commissioners launched a blitzkrieg, hiring a lobbyist (for $25,000) to get the Republican legislature to redraw the districts of the Democratic School Board members – then the Democratic School Board struck back (to keep their districts) by spending four times as much ($100,000) to hire their…
Read MoreThere’s a full throated debate going on in Washington – Republicans are saying ‘the Sequester’ wasn’t their idea, it was Obama’s idea, and the White House is saying, ‘Obama’s idea! John Boehner not only voted for the Sequester, after it passed he bragged he’d gotten 98% of what he wanted.’ Meanwhile the Republicans, after…
Read MoreAfter three days on a retreat at a spa near Washington, and after meeting with President Obama, House Democrats headed home ‘billing and cooing’ like reconciled brides because they’d built a ‘closer relationship’ with the President. But in this case the path to reconciliation wasn’t romantic: It was money. To sooth the Congressmen…
Read MoreJim Gardner almost changed political history twice – 20 years ago and 40 years ago. In 1972, he was the fair-haired boy of the North Carolina Republican Party. Six years earlier, he had unexpectedly defeated a long-time Democratic congressman from the East, Harold Cooley. How big an upset was it? Cooley was chairman of…
Read MoreDidn’t we see this movie in the Sixties? The President and his aides huddle over maps and pick targets. Jets drop bombs or drones launch missiles. Our enemies die. So do innocent civilians. The natives hate us and we make more enemies. As Congressman Walter Jones asks: Why are we still in Afghanistan? …
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