Pat McCrory’s just captured the biggest tarbaby in North Carolina. State government has never been a paragon of efficiency but after twelve years of Mike Easley and Beverly Perdue and pay-to-play politics it’s become an unusually broad and deep quagmire. The state’s Medicaid claims processing contract is an example: Years ago when Mike…
Read MoreWill Republicans’ Election Day encounter with reality put them more in touch with reality on global warming, evolution and whether women who are raped get pregnant? Don’t count on it. Denial is a powerful habit. In the election’s aftermath, it is clear that the Romney-Republican-Rove-Fox echo chamber fell victim to their own spin.…
Read MoreThe waitress nodded to a slender fortyish brunette at the next table and said, ‘This is Gwyn, she’s a Republican’ – then Gwyn leaned across the gap between our two tables and said, ‘Just look at those Democrats, they didn’t win anyone’s hearts or minds this election – all they did was change who voted.…
Read MoreThis election showed how closely – and bitterly – divided Americans are. Suppose we go through another 2000 cliff-hanger one day? Increasingly, we don’t just hold different views and opinions from our opponents. We hold them in contempt. We call them ignorant, bigoted, fascistic, communistic, unpatriotic and un-America. We question a winner’s very legitimacy.…
Read MoreThe decision about Obamacare highlights the tension that will mark North Carolina’s politics the next four years. The tension stems from an election that saw the nation go in one direction (largely Democratic) and North Carolina in another (almost all Republican). When political partisans win an election, they tend to believe that an…
Read MoreBack before the election I wrote a lot about the importance of money in campaigns and how the Democrats were in trouble because of a lack of it. The NC Free Enterprise Foundation has just published a report on campaign spending during the 3rd Quarter, which ended just before the election. There were a…
Read MoreA TAPster takes issue with the blog criticizing Bob Etheridge for running against Walter Dalton: “I disagree with the argument that Bobby Etheridge caused Dalton’s defeat. If anything, the primary gave Dalton an opportunity to take his case to the public sooner rather than later. It is true that Perdue’s midnight decision put Dalton…
Read MorePardon me for plugging an old friend, but you should check out what’s happening at the Research Triangle Park under new President & CEO Bob Geolas. Last week, the Park rolled out its new master plan. It envisions more urban-type centers to complement the consummate campus setting. New companies, new talent and new minds…
Read MoreThe day after the election House Republican Leader John Boehner faced a tough question: Would he compromise with Obama or not? It was a Hobson’s Choice. Either way he was walking into a political minefield. In the end Speaker Boehner threw what looked like a compromise on the table – in effect, saying to…
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