The next time you look up tenacity in the dictionary you may see House Speaker Jim Black’s picture beside the word. Black’s been hauled before the Board of Elections, the Grand Jury, the federal courts and his nominee for the lottery commission was convicted of fraud but, despite it all, as improbable as it sounds,…
Read MoreMy joy over Democratic victories in 2006 is tempered by my fear over what we might do to screw it all up in 2007. Politicians’ instinctive reaction to victory is too often hubris. When they win, they assume they have license to do everything they’ve ever dreamed of doing, regardless of whether the voters voted…
Read MoreThe latest Gallop Poll of the Democratic and Republican candidates says: Democrats Hillary Clinton 31% Barack Obama 19% John Edwards 10% Al Gore 9% John Kerry 7% Republicans Rudy Giuliani 28% John McCain 26% Condoleezza Rice 13% Newt Gingrich 7% Mitt Romney 5% Pollster Dick Morris (http://www.vote.com/) observed that the poll shows the ‘gender gap’…
Read MoreThe Iraq Security Group led by former Secretary of State Jim Baker is about to release itâs report, and despite all the window dressing about finding a ânew way forwardâ it looks like the bottom line is simple: Letâs get out of Iraq. Of course the politicians and diplomats arenât putting it quite that bluntly,…
Read MoreThomas Friedman wrote in The New York Times recently that Iraqis can’t be having a civil war because they’re not sufficiently organized to have one. But I suspect my fellow Democrats are. And next year’s Raleigh elections may be the first battle of that war. There are two very different schools of thought in the…
Read MoreCarter and I did a panel Sunday before a group of Southern journalists who are navigating their way through the brave new world of blogs and the Internet – and the impact on politics. One UNC professor asked this question: “Does the ‘new media’ make politics more negative and more superficial?” He cited the blog-…
Read MoreEthics are supposed to set standards for ‘virtuous’ behavior, so you wouldn’t expect ‘judicial ethics’ to result in an injustice. But that appears to have happened in the trial of two off duty Durham police officers charged with assaulting a short order cook at Blinco’s sports bar. Here’s what happened: When the prosecutor rested his…
Read MoreNorth Carolina Democrats had a good year, but it could have been better. Talkingaboutpolitics.com has learned (now, doesn’t that sound pretentious?) that Rahm Emmanuel’s vaunted Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee missed a chance to take out Robin Hayes. A group of North Carolina Democrats were poised to raise last-minute money for Democrat Larry Kissell’s campaign, if…
Read MorePeople used to say, I don’t care which party straightens out our country as long as one does. But times have changed. The Charlotte Observer (11-13-06) reports “straight ticket voting” increased 20% in Mecklenburg County this election. Of course, it’s possible that every, say, Democratic candidate in every race was more qualified than his Republican…
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