Posts by Gary Pearce
Taking Out Tata
Even strong Democrats believe the Wake school board flunked this test. The board majority may have done the right thing, but they sure did it the wrong way. And Democrats may pay the price. It was a mistake to fire Tony Tata without first setting out a bill of particulars. You can’t fire a…
Read MoreMitt Gets Real
The worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted. After a week, it’s clear that Mitt Romney inflicted a doozy on himself when he got carried away about the “47 percent” at that high-flying Florida fundraiser. Voters today are sophisticated consumers of political messages. They know political ads lie. They know that every word a candidate…
Read MoreOut of the Battle
I’m just back from several days in Northern California: spectacular rocky coastlines, innumerable wineries, gut-wrenching mountain roads, falling-apart expressways, low humidity, bohemian lifestyles – and no presidential election. That’s an exaggeration. They have an election, too. But no suspense. California’s 55 electoral votes are already counted toward Obama’s goal of 270. He and Mitt…
Read MoreDalton’s Hope
Watching the Dalton and McCrory TV ads, you see the opening that Dalton could exploit if he has enough time and money. McCrory’s ads are content-free. Apparently, he’s going to solve unemployment and $4 gas by drilling everywhere under our feet and off the coast. And he’s responsible for Charlotte’s success. How would he…
Read MoreMr. Bowles Goes to Washington
Here’s betting that, whoever wins the presidential race, Erskine Bowles ends up in Washington. He’s being mentioned as Obama’s Secretary of Treasury. And wouldn’t Mitt Romney be smart to put Bowles – a Southern, Clinton Democrat – in a top position? Maybe Treasury, Budget Director or something out of the box like Defense? …
Read MoreRomney Goes Negative – On the Voters
Mitt Romney is going to make me a sorry seer. I blog that he’s bound to come back, then he says the dumbest, most damaging and most unintentionally revealing thing I’ve heard in politics in ages. Romney’s “47 percent” remarks hurt him on so many levels. One, he’s wrong. I’m voting for Obama.…
Read MoreJohn Drescher Responds
N&O Executive Editor John Drescher retweeted my blog about UNC and the N&O, but took issue with another blog, in which a TAPster criticized the N&O for dedicating much of Sunday’s front page to a “40-year-old murder mystery.” Drescher responded: “At the moment, today’s MacDonald story is No. 3 on the newsobserver.com most-read list (which you…
Read MoreFearless Prediction
Everything is going wrong for the Romney campaign, but one thing is certain in politics: This too shall pass. So look for the story line to change dramatically at some point before the election. Election Day is seven weeks from today. That’s too long for the media to keep saying Romney is a terrible…
Read MoreThorp, UNC and the N&O
When I worked at the N&O eons ago, I remember seeing Bill Friday and several key aides frequently coming in to meet with then-Editor Claude Sitton and the editorial-page staff. Therein lies a lesson for UNC and Holden Thorp’s successor. In the end (see my blog last week), Thorp concluded he couldn’t hold on.…
Read MoreThis Just In…
A TAPster takes an admitted “cheap shot” at the N&O: “In the middle of a game-changing election season, the newspaper’s Sunday edition underscored its irrelevance by living in the past. “It ran an exhausting front-page rehash of a 40-year-old murder mystery and dragged former columnist Dennis Rogers from retirement to add his dusty…
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