Posts by Carter Wrenn
Reagan and Obama
Here’s why, in political campaigns, Dick Morris was fun to work with. Dick could look at a poll and within ten seconds get ten ideas. I’ve only met three people like that: Tom Ellis, Arthur Finkelstein, and Dick Morris. Once, sitting in a meeting, Dick was arguing for one of his ideas with a New…
Read MoreWhat Would Martin Luther King Make of This?
While Kay Hagan’s singing Kumbaya with Republicans, I must be getting more partisan. Because I’m having trouble seeing the Democrats’ side of things. Senator Richard Burr recently sponsored a bill saying the Veterans Administration can’t declare a veteran ‘nuts’ (actually the politically correct term is ‘mentally deficient’) – unless a judge agrees. Burr’s bill sounds…
Read MoreObama in Berlin
I’ve decided to strike another blow for partisanship. Because Barack Obama’s really beginning to trouble me. Not content running for President of the United States, he’s now running for President or Prime Minister or whatever it is in Europe too. And his appeal seems to be intercontinental. Two hundred thousand Germans poured into a Berlin…
Read MoreKay Hagan Rewrites a Little History
Sometimes you have to wonder what planet politicians come from. Everyone living on Planet Earth knows the North Carolina Senate isn’t anything like a summer camp of fellowship and bi-partisan comity. For a decade Democratic wheelhorse Marc Basnight has passed down orders and the boys have lined up like a cadre of linebackers and rolled…
Read MoreWill the Real Politician Please Stand Up?
Gary, I’m going to agree. John McCain’s a flip-flopper. The old admiral is zigging and zagging. But a bit of the shine’s rubbing off Obama’s apple too. After a year of telling everyone who’d listen how he’s going to get us out of the war, His Nimbleness just said – in Baghdad, no less –…
Read MoreEnquirer Exclusive
Wednesday morning when I got to the office a newspaper headline was waiting on my desk: SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD. My first thought, since it was a National Enquirer Celebrity Exclusive, was to tell myself, You may not like Edwards but these folks believe in Martians. Or at least they…
Read MoreBlonde Jokes
I guess whenever someone says they oppose bullying gays, then turns around and says in the next breath they also oppose a law that says, No bullying gays, that gives folks reason to pause. Anyway, when I did it, it gave Brunette (who regularly posts here and whom I enjoy reading) qualms. She wrote: “Carter,…
Read MoreThe Six-Million-Dollar Woman
I haven’t been on particularly warm terms with Bob and Elizabeth Dole since 1996, when I made a passel of negative ads for Steve Forbes during the Iowa Caucus attacking then-Senator Bob Dole – but New York Senator Charlie Schumer may be about to turn what happened in Iowa ten years ago into a glimmering…
Read MoreObama’s Helmet
There’s a big new CBS News/New York Times poll out and Obama’s popularity has dropped. Which sounds good. Until you look at McCain’s numbers. He dropped too. Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Let’s put this as bluntly as possible: McCain needs to defeat Obama roughly 56% to 44% among white voters to…
Read MoreBeing a Republican in the State Legislature
If you’re a Republican in the minority in the House or Senate, the last few years have been one long, frustrating nightmare. The North Carolina legislature works on a winner-take-all system. The majority doesn’t rule. It dictates. There are no such things as filibusters or minority party rights. You lose the election and you have…
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