Posts by Gary Pearce
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
Before a hurricane brushed the coast, Governor McCrory warned us not to put on our “stupid hats.” Then Hillary Clinton criticized President Obama’s foreign policy for not being more visionary than “don’t do stupid stuff.” Well, call me stupid, but I’m so confused by the world today that “don’t do stupid stuff” sounds pretty…
Read MoreGOP Tsunami Watch
It’s refreshing to see real brains working on the other side of the political aisle, rather than just mouths mouthing talking points. (In fact, it’s refreshing to see that on your own side.) So this “Tsunami Watch” memo by my Republican pollster friend John McLaughlin and his brother Jim caught my eye. The subhead…
Read MoreObama’s Summer Bummer
Ten years ago this month, Barack Obama first streaked across the political skies with a rousing Democratic Convention speech in which he famously proclaimed there wasn’t a red America and a blue America, only one United States of America. Today President Obama presides over an America bitterly divided between red and blue. He doesn’t…
Read MoreThe First 1 Million
You had to be here in the 1950s to appreciate how much Raleigh and Wake County have changed on the way to one million people. And, to this old-timer, it’s a much better place today. We were poor, provincial, rural and racist to the core. Today we’re affluent, global in outlook, urban and suburban,…
Read MoreSenate Ads Are Working
As much as I respect Rob Christensen and the political experts he talked with in today’s column, I disagree with their conclusion that the money spent in the U.S. Senate race has had “little effect.” In fact, I think the ads by Senator Hagan – and on her behalf – have painted Thom Tillis…
Read MoreThree Strikes
Republicans strode up to the plate in Raleigh with big bats and high hopes, then whiffed on three straight pitches. Strike one was teacher pay. Their top goal was to stop the bleeding on education. But their so-called pay raise was so full of holes, questions and confusion that nobody is satisfied, teachers are…
Read MoreDay Two, But Still Part One
Governor McCrory’s blast at The N&O got him another day of the “blaring, top-of-the-fold” headlines he blasted. But this is just the beginning of the Coal Ash Saga. We soon will have a U.S. Attorney’s investigation and a fight over who pays: McCrory’s former boss, Duke Energy, or his current boss, the People of North…
Read MoreMcCrory’s Coal Ash Sword
Long after Watergate brought him down (40 years ago this month), Richard Nixon told David Frost: “I gave them a sword, and they stuck it in and they twisted it with relish.” Now, Governor McCrory’s actions on coal ash don’t begin to approach Nixon’s on Watergate. But he has given his enemies a sword…
Read MoreA Raleigh Boy’s Story
Rob Christensen’s column about Tom Bradshaw accurately captures one of the most remarkable people I’ve met through 44 years in newspapers and politics. My first encounter with Bradshaw was much like Christensen’s. Tom was the “boy mayor” of Raleigh, and I was a cub reporter at The N&O. City government was my beat, just…
Read MoreThe N&O at 120
My first thought when I read that The News & Observer is 120 years old was, “Holy cow, that’s old.” My second thought was, “Hold the coffee, I’ve been reading the paper for HALF ITS LIFE!” My dad moved to Raleigh to work in the N&O composing room when I was a year old.…
Read More