Bedrock to Quicksand

One minute you’re standing on solid ground and the next the trap door springs open and you’re falling through mid-air.   Last week, the New York Times reported Republican political consultants made a startling discovery: They discovered swing voters have a stubborn affinity for Barack Obama and President Obama’s economic failure is not enough to elect…

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A Bigger Swamp…

Unless you happen to be one of the half-dozen people in Raleigh who do not own a television you’ve figured out by now that both sides in the Presidential race mean to do whatever it takes to win. This virulent outbreak of no holds barred politics has some folks worried we’ve stumbled into a kind…

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A Bigger Swamp…

Unless you happen to be one of the half-dozen people in Raleigh who do not own a television you’ve figured out by now that both sides in the Presidential race mean to do whatever it takes to win. This virulent outbreak of no holds barred politics has some folks worried we’ve stumbled into a kind…

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The Breaking Point

The other day Gary wrote “Why They Lie” about the election in 1984 when Jim Hunt and Jesse Helms were duking it out and how elbow throwing was acceptable in that campaign but outright lying was taboo – that was one line both Helms and Hunt feared to cross. Because they’d pay a price.  …

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Too Good to be True?

It doesn’t take a great deal to turn a fellow’s head – a blonde whispering in his ear, unexpected praise from a stranger, a new sports car. Humility’s hard to come by and harder still to hold onto which, I guess, is one reason the Good Lord made the world such a difficult place to…

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Worlds Colliding?

I live and breathe and walk in a middle-aged white male world and (except for Gary) I’ve hardly a friend who can even imagine Obama winning this election – in their bones they just know that can’t happen.   My Republican friends have also been euphoric since the last election and they’ve had little or…

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An Unexpected Service

Until Saturday Mitt Romney’s road to the White House was straightforward – the election was a debate about Barack Obama’s failure to turn the economy around.   That has now changed. The election will still be about Obama’s failure but it will also be about the Republicans’ cure for that failure: Paul Ryan’s budget.  …

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Too Much Government

The headline on John Dresher’s ‘tweet’ (“Wake Forest Baptist cited for violating federal regulations after monkey’s escape”) was more temptation than I could resist – I clicked on the link to the story imagining a ‘foot washing’ Baptist with a monkey and what the monkey could have done that landed him in trouble but, it…

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An Odd Fact

Whenever the question of how to improve education in North Carolina comes up the Democrats are a paragon of consistency: The solution, they say, is to spend more money.   Now, right or wrong, the Democrats are dead serious and whenever Republicans (who have a different idea about solutions to problems) don’t spend more on…

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When It’s Over…

Harry Reid stands up beside his desk in the Senate and announces he’s got ‘credible evidence’ Mitt Romney hasn’t paid taxes for ten years – but then says he’s not sure it’s true.   The Chairman of the Republican Party, throwing manners aside, brands Reid a ‘dirty liar.’   Reid’s spokesman fires back it’s ‘clear…

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