Gary’s plenty kind to say back in 1984 the folks in Jesse’s campaign ‘were smarter’ than the folks in Hunt’s campaign but I suspect the better term is more experienced – by 1984 we’d been using direct mail to raise money for eight years and airing ‘negative ads’ for four years; Governor Hunt hadn’t but…
Read MoreI’m an N.C. State grad and a rabid Wolfpack fan. But I’m pulling for UNC this year. The last time I did this was in 1956-57, when I was a young fan of Frank McGuire’s undefeated national championship team. I got over that quickly. I spent many years enjoying hating Dean Smith and all his…
Read MorePat McCrory said recently that he learned a lesson from his loss to Bev Perdue: negative ads work. What planet has he been on? My guess is that old warrior Jack Hawke told McCrory long before Election Day that, to win, he would have to attack Perdue. And McCrory was surprised? I suspect this is…
Read MoreLast Sunday the News and Observer reported that after receiving $4.9 billion from Uncle Sam to ‘loosen credit’ SunTrust Bank finds itself in the unfortunate position of ‘calling notes’ on customers here in the Triangle. I read the article before church. Driving home after church I passed a SunTrust sign and half expected to see…
Read MoreThree weeks before the election, driving to work, an ad came on the radio and I heard a woman’s voice say, Did you know Jesse Helms opposes abortion – even if a woman is raped – even in cases of incest? I thought, Oh, my God – because Hunt had just given about every woman…
Read MoreGovernor Perdue had the makings of a great speech last night. But she didn’t give it. When she finished, it felt like the old song: Is that all there is? I had predicted she would paint a broad picture rather than fill in details. But she certainly took that approach to the extreme. The platitude…
Read MoreI think I’ve only spoken to Jim Hunt once in my life – after the fourth debate. Jesse got better in each debate but a slip in the third debate set off a small powder keg: The head of the Veterans for Foreign Wars (VFW) had endorsed Hunt and it rankled Jesse. It got under…
Read MoreJune Atkinson apparently has decided to spend her term as Superintendent of Public Instruction fighting to get back her office’s powers – either from the legislature or the courts. That’s understandable. But is it the best thing for the schools? And is there another strategy for Atkinson? When Governor Perdue named Bill Harrison schools CEO,…
Read MoreThe night after the debate Jesse figured there was no one to blame but himself but, by the next morning, he’d figured out that was wrong. He’d lost, he told me, because of the format (which, he added pointedly, was my and Tom Ellis’s doing). Then, having straightened out who was to blame he rolled…
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