Democrats Show Up

Democrats are fired up. Republicans are fleeing the fight. Democrats have candidates competing for 168 of the 170 state House and Senate seats. Republicans fielded candidates in only 137 races. It’s clear which party has energy and enthusiasm going into 2024. When Anderson Clayton was elected state Democratic chair last February, she pledged to contest…

Read More

Tillis vs Trump

Senator Thom Tillis stood up to MAGA Mark Robinson. Now he should stand up to Donald Trump. Tillis, North Carolina’s senior Senator, endorsed Bill Graham over Robinson in the Republican primary for governor. Robinson promptly labeled Tillis one of the “RINO elites” plotting “to take me down.” Previously, Robinson blasted as “cowards” unnamed Republicans “who…

Read More

Coopercare

Some 600,000 North Carolinians will get quality, affordable health care now – thanks to the tenacity of one man: Governor Roy Cooper. When Medicaid expansion took effect last week, some headlines called it “bipartisan.” But Republicans had fought it since Obamacare passed in 2010. They supported expansion only after seven years of patient, persistent prodding,…

Read More

Trump-slayer?

Nikki Haley is having a media moment. The New York Times and Politico say she’s the rising Not-Trump Republican. I’m torn here. Given the threat Trump poses to democracy and the free world, I’m for anybody who can stop him. But if Haley slays the Trump dragon, she’ll be a formidable opponent for President Biden…

Read More

Go With Grandpa

President Biden passes the most consequential social and economic legislation in decades, despite dysfunctional D.C. Republicans. He rallies the free world behind Ukraine. He skillfully steers us through the dangerous and domestically divisive war in Gaza. But he stumbles on a word or a stage and the media writes that he’s old and Democrats should…

Read More

JFK

In September 1960, John F. Kennedy brought his campaign for President to Raleigh. My parents, strong Democrats, supported him. They read that he and his entourage would stop at Glenwood Village Shopping Center a couple of miles from our house and get into a motorcade to Reynolds Coliseum at N.C. State College for a night-time…

Read More

Picking Apart Polls

My opinion of the Meredith College poll is higher than of media polls – because of David McLennan, professor of political science at Meredith and director of the poll. Responding to my blog questioning media polls, McLennan said we shouldn’t overreact to any poll now, for two reasons: “1. It is too early. There is…

Read More

Capital Corruption

Corruption will be big in North Carolina politics in 2024. As soon as House Speaker Tim Moore (pictured) announced his run for Congress, his Republican opponent Pat Harrigan, a former Army Green Beret who won two Bronze Stars in Afghanistan, ambushed him: “Tim Moore carries a legacy of corruption, from being bought and paid for…

Read More

He’s a Fascist

Donald Trump’s Veterans Day speech in New Hampshire sounded right out of a 1930s Nuremberg rally. The Washington Post: “Trump calls political enemies ‘vermin,’ echoing Hitler and Mussolini.” Forbes: “Trump Compares Political Foes to ‘Vermin’ on Veterans Day, Echoing Nazi Propaganda.” Trump vowed to “root out…the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the…

Read More

Ignore Media Polls

A week ago, The New York Times published a poll predicting disaster for President Biden and Democrats in big states a year from now. Two days later, voters gave Democrats big victories in big states: Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Why are media polls so wrong so often? My suspicion: they’re done on the cheap.…

Read More