Posts by Carter Wrenn
Easier to Win
Most candidates view asking people to give money to their campaigns like having a tooth pulled; over twenty years, Jesse Helms never picked up the telephone, dialed a number, and asked for a contribution. Once, during a meeting, after Jesse finished answering questions his chief fundraiser asked the group of businessmen to contribute. After a…
Read MoreTwo Signs
A threat shadowing Republican candidates has been the fear that Republicans who dislike Donald Trump (and also can’t abide Hillary) won’t vote; if these ‘Ambivalent to Trump’ Republicans worried and fretted then stayed home on Election Day it looked like it could cost every Republican from Pat McCrory to a local School Board candidate votes…
Read MoreRock Bottom but Not Boring
Women were coming out of the woodwork for weeks pointing fingers at Donald Trump and Trump’s been saying if you really want to vote against a man who grabs and kisses women you ought to vote against Hillary because of Bill. We’ve had more sex on our hands than needed but finally it died down.…
Read MoreThe Last Eight Days
Back in June, Gary wrote about an odd phenomenon: How, in the Presidential election, the candidate who dominated – who received the most press – dropped in the polls. It was as if voters thought, I dislike them both but the one I dislike most is the one I see most. Watching the Sunday morning…
Read MoreJust Fade Away?
Down in an office building in San Antonio there’re over a hundred Internet gnomes working day and night to elect Donald Trump; until now they’ve been flying below the radar screen but the other day they opened their doors and invited Bloomberg News inside and the result was a story that sent a tremor rolling…
Read MoreClutter
There’re two things about political ads a normal ‘Joe’ sitting at home watching TV could tell you that a lot of campaigns haven’t figured out – here’s an example: Americans for Prosperity just launched a new tv ad attacking Roy Cooper and like a lot of political ads it begins with a shadowy black and…
Read MoreRigged Elections
Donald Trump’s hammered away saying the election’s ‘rigged’ and 24 million people are registered improperly including 1.8 million dead people;— the first time I ever laid eyes on a list of registered voters back in 1976 it was filled with dead people and people who didn’t live at the address where they’d registered to vote.…
Read MoreThe Last Great Debate
The ‘Last Great Debate’ starts in a few hours. In a nutshell a political debate like this one boils down to a simple fact: It’s a confrontation between two people – who’re facing each other across a stage – who each want to prove he or she will be a better President or Governor or…
Read MoreRyan’s Gambit
It was like watching a fire start – an errant spark lands in the trashcan, the paper ignites, the rug smolders, the flames lick up the wall, the fire spreads throughout the house. Monday the Wall Street Journal published a poll showing Hillary rolling to an 11-point lead and showing Democrats ahead by 7 points…
Read MoreA Rock and a Hard Place
Joe Klein published the best report on the Second Presidential Debate. There’s not much to add. Hillary was Hillary. No surprises there. More than a few folks thought Trump might disintegrate but he didn’t – so, as they say in politics, he ‘exceeded expectations.’ The result wasn’t exactly a resounding victory for Trump but he…
Read More