President-elect Trump said two things on Meet the Press Sunday that should set off alarm bells across America: he’ll pardon the January 6 thugs and traitors “on Day One” and the members of Congress who investigated the Capitol attack “should be in jail.” That is dictator talk. Yet, the media treated it as just another…
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Too many Democrats are too quick to draw too-sweeping conclusions about why Kamala Harris lost and what the party needs to do now. Usually, their prescriptions mirror their preconceptions. Bernie Sanders says we lost touch with the working class. James Carville says we went too woke. Some Democrats blame President Biden. Some say Harris was…
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We may be tired and tapped out after a long campaign, or drained and dreading the looming Trump disaster. But a critically important election remains unresolved in North Carolina, and Republicans are trying to steal it. The outcome of Supreme Court Justice Allison Riggs’ reelection fight could decide the course of North Carolina politics through…
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The communications world has changed drastically since I started in politics, but 2024 proved that TV ads still are the best way to deliver a campaign message. Even in today’s fractured and fragmented information landscape – with cable networks, Facebook, X, TikTok, Blue Sky, podcasts and the rest – nothing carries more throw-weight than a…
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Back in the old days when an election was over folks leaned back, heaved a sigh of relief. Squabbling stopped. For awhile. This year, after the curtain fell on the election, squabbling rolled on: We’ve got Fox News still bashing Harris and the ‘mainstream’ media punching away at Trump, who just handed them more red…
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Joe Biden has been a good President, but missed being great because he wasn’t a great communicator. You can’t be a great politician – and certainly not a great President – if you aren’t a great communicator. Biden’s one term is much like President Jimmy Carter’s. Both did great things, but couldn’t tell the story.…
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Turning on the TV, watching the first debate in the 2016 Iowa primary, I stared at a row of candidates standing on stage – they all talked, sounded like smooth-tongued Washington politicians – except one: Donald Trump. Trump beat Hillary. Covid struck. Biden beat Trump. Trump ran again. Biden got out. Trump called Kamala Harris…
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John Bolton: “Reagan lost the first five primaries to Gerald Ford in 1976 – then upset Ford in North Carolina. Carter Wrenn ran Reagan’s North Carolina campaign. He tells a compelling story about American politics, from Reagan to Trump.” Stephen Mansfield, New York Times bestselling author: “Our generation is awash in a sea of thin…
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Trump boasts that his election – by 1.5% in the popular vote – gives him a “mandate.” Which reminds me of what Jim Hunt said after one of his four elections as governor. (I forget which one, but I do remember that his margins of victory ranged from 9.5 to 31%.) A reporter asked Hunt,…
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