Hold the mayo on the John Edwards Is Toast Special. It is unlikely that Edwards will win the Democratic nomination. But this race has already seen five unlikelies – the rises of Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee and the resurrections of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Four reasons to watch Edwards: Money. His…
Read MoreDear Pat: Victoria Smith is doing a fine job as your campaign manager. Don’t let her go. You’re the Democrats’ biggest worry in the Governor’s race. You’re the only Republican who is moderate enough to give us a run in November. North Carolinians may elect Senators in the mold of Jesse Helms (Fred Smith) or…
Read MoreNow Beverly Perdue’s new TV ad talks about her support for Smart Start. I take great pride in this. Not that I had anything to do with Governor Hunt developing the program. But I did come up with the name. I didn’t steal it from the cereal. Our Smart Start came first. In fact, I’m…
Read MoreJack Nichols, running for State Senate in Wake County, has an interesting strategy. He has been running TV ads on cable news during busy political times. His consultants, Mike Davis and Perry Woods, say the ads are aimed at high-information primary voters. The strategy makes sense. So does the message: Jack is a progressive who…
Read MoreAll I know about the Moore-Perdue debate is what I read in the N&O. And I see three points for Perdue: At first her attack on Moore for the Randy Parton-Local Government Commission looked like a reach. The N&O wrote that it was an overreach. But this dog may bite. At the least, anybody who…
Read MoreEnough self-flagellation, already. The media and all of us in the “chattering class” are in full mea culpa frenzy. We have sinned. We have over-reacted and over-reached and over-relied on polls. We have jumped to hasty conclusions. We have talked when we should have listened. We have been too quick to anoint winners and condemn…
Read MoreI’m a poll junkie. I’ve worked with some of the best pollsters in the country. I’ve devoured hundreds of polls. Every one of them came with a caveat about methodology. It’s printed clearly at the beginning. A recent example: “This poll…has an accuracy of +/- 4.0 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.” Now, the…
Read MoreThe Democrats got the infection first. But it didn’t take long for the Republicans to catch the bug too. The symptoms: Uncontrollably saying the word ‘change’ passionately a dozen times in each sentence. Hillary says she’s been fighting for change all her life. John McCain has too. Barack Obama’s a fresh face which makes him…
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