I blogged not long ago about the veto being Jim Hunt’s gift to Mike Easley – and all future Governors. Now – with Easley’s veto of the Goodyear-incentives bill – we begin to see what veto power really means. Brave New World, Chapter One: So much for being a lame duck. Easley may be ineffective…
Read MoreIn 200 years no President has ever had his legal powers taken from him. But, in addition to his legal powers, a President must also have a political mandate to govern, and a case can be made that three of the last seven Presidents lost that mandate before they left office. And George Bush may…
Read MoreDeveloper John Kane’s back, asking the City Council to give him $75 million in public money (tax breaks) to subsidize the expansion of North Hills Mall. (I guess he’s figured out he can undercut his competitors if the city goes along with the county commissioners to allow him not to pay 75% of his property…
Read MoreIf you’re a taxpayer in Roanoke Rapids you’re a guarantor on the city’s $21.5 million loan to Randy Parton to build the Randy Parton Theatre. But if you want to know how your investment is doing forgetaboutit. How’s attendance? Is Parton paying his $41,000 per month rent on time? Is their any money left after…
Read MoreSay you are a candidate and need to get in step with Republican voters on immigration, because your record wasn’t quite what it should be. There’s one tried and true political strategy: Find an opponent whose record is worse than yours and attack him. That’s what Mitt Romney is doing – accusing Rudy Giuliani of…
Read MoreA poll last week seemed to support Karl Rove’s argument that Hillary Clinton is a “fatally flawed” candidate. But the results may say more about how polarized voters are today. The poll, by the Pew Research Center, said: “Among voters of all parties with an opinion, Clinton is viewed favorably by 55 percent, the lowest…
Read MoreRudy Giuliani has done a little lily gilding of his own, declaring in a campaign appearance he’d “been in the ruins of the World Trade Center Towers as often, if not more than the cleanup workers.” Unfortunately for the Mayor that wasn’t how the workers remembered it. They complained. And the New York Times did…
Read MoreIt wasn’t too long ago that John Edwards running for Senate as a moderate choirboy was promising to stay above gutter politics and negative smears. By gosh, he said, he was going to keep to the high moral ground. Times change. Nine years later, our choirboy has become a pit-bull attacking Hillary, Rupert Murdoch and…
Read MoreI confess to not knowing much about Senator Janet Cowell from Raleigh, who wants to run for State Treasurer. But she did something rare for a politician last week. And my opinion of her immediately went sky-high. She apologized. She admitted she made a mistake. She owned up to it. And she did so in…
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