Posts by Gary Pearce
McCroryCare?
Your eyes may glaze over reading about the McCrory administration’s plan to reform Medicaid. But this may pop your pupils: It adopts a key feature of Obamacare. Like the Affordable Care Act, DHHS’ new and improved Medicaid plan depends on an animal called “Accountable Care Organizations.” One health expert describes ACOs this way:…
Read MoreObama Tops McCrory
This poll result caught the eye: “Obama at 42 percent approval in NC, McCrory at 36 percent.” Yes, the Governor’s approval rating was lower than the President’s in a High Point University poll. Now, a big caveat: The poll was of all adults, not just voters. The results might be different among voters alone.…
Read MoreMcCrory Jumps Back Into the Frying Pan
Even Governor McCrory’s critics were ready to move on, but he won’t, for reasons that are unfathomable. Instead, he takes time out of his (we assume) busy schedule to write a letter to the Charlotte Observer about his now-famous encounter with a cook at a gourmet food store. The letter tells us a lot more than…
Read MoreCrappy PR
When you’ve got bad news, get it out. It only gets worse with age. Pat McCrory’s new-look DENR failed that test last week, at a time when people were watching closely how the administration would react to its first environmental crisis. When three million-plus gallons of untreated sewage spewed into the Haw River, DENR…
Read MoreIn the Line of Fire
Politics 101 used to say that getting in the news was good for politicians. Not today. The new rule is: If you’re in the spotlight, you’re losing. The more you’re in the news, the lower your poll ratings. When the government shutdown dominated Page 1, Republicans plummeted in the polls. When Obamacare took…
Read MoreMcCrory Jumps Back Into the Frying Pan
Even Governor McCrory’s critics were ready to move on, but he won’t, for reasons that are unfathomable. Instead, he takes time out of his (we assume) busy schedule to write a letter to the Charlotte Observer about his now-famous encounter with a cook at a gourmet food store. The letter tells us a lot…
Read MoreLiberators
The 14 men seated on the front row were in or closing in on their 10th decade on earth. Some of them were bent and wheelchair-bound. A couple were spry and alert. Several had trouble hearing, even when their names were called and their courage recounted. Seventy years ago, they were young men. Boys,…
Read MoreStuff Happens
Governor McCrory was checking off his 2014 Reset List. Teacher pay plan: check. Televised command presence in snowstorm: check. National face time on Face the Nation: check. New communications director: check. Then a river of sludge called coal ash starts gushing out of a facility owned by his employer of 28 years. Then a…
Read MorePollution and Profits
This is not what you call an ideal corporate PR juxtaposition. The Page One headline screams, “Damage from Dan River spill still unfolding.”From a Duke Energy power plant. On the business page, the headline says: “Duke Energy earnings up for 2013.” In true corporate PR fashion, Duke’s CEO announces the profits. An underling is dispatched to…
Read MoreOle Joe Hunt
Governor McCrory walked into Reid’s Fine Food and ran head on into a cook who proceeded to tell him what he thought of the Governor’s politics; then, the way the cook tells it, the Governor started yelling, saying he was a customer and shouldn’t be treated that way – then the Governor’s security detail complained…
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