Posts by Gary Pearce
Trumped-Up Hate
There’s no point wondering what Donald Trump was thinking when he dragged the “birther” dead horse back into Mitt Romney’s stable. What’s inside Trump’s head is even more ridiculous than the hair on top. But here’s a question more to the point – from a friend visiting elderly relatives and subjected to days-long exposure…
Read MoreA Romney-McCrory Collapse
A couple of Republican friends confess to their nightmare scenario: a collapse by both Mitt Romney and Pat McCrory. Conservative Republicans have long worried that Romney might fail to stir the base. That turnout was key to the 2010 election and the gay-marriage amendment. Now McCrory’s petty, panicked and petulant mishandling of the…
Read MoreEviscerating Politics
Political consultants have a way of getting carried away and saying things they quickly regret. Believe me, I’ve been there. So it was with Dustin Ingalls, assistant director of Public Policy Polling, who told a Cumberland County Democratic group: “We have to absolutely eviscerate McCrory….It’s going to have to be a very negative…
Read MoreA Low Blow
This time Mitt Romney has gone too far. He has sunk to the lowest, basest political attack ever seen in our country. His latest negative assault on President Obama goes beyond anything the birthers, the haters and the Jeremiah Wright-baiters ever thought of. Romney attacked the President for playing golf. Romney’s campaign…
Read MoreMcCrory and the Media
Carter pointed out (“Counting His Luck Stars,” below) how Pat McCrory unwisely opened himself up to a counterstrike by Democratic lawyers. In that same press conference, McCrory unwisely picked another fight: with the media. The N&O reported that “McCrory chastised reporters at his news conference, saying their stations should pull the ad.” He…
Read MoreWho Is Fred Davis?
Davis is Pat McCrory’s ad man. He made headlines recently for advocating controversial ads attacking President Obama over Jeremiah Wright, as Carter noted in his blog below, “The Pirates and a Chicago Billionaire.” Democrats, predictably, are calling for McCrory to fire Davis. Hold the mayo. Maybe it would be better for Walter Dalton if…
Read MorePity the Jurors
A TAPster wrote to express his rage over news that John Edwards took in a ball game while the jury deliberated this week: “Law-abiding citizens are summoned away from their jobs and families to be sequestered for weeks on end to decide if John Edwards has committed campaign fraud, in addition to the other…
Read MoreWhy Obama Is Winning NC
Republican operatives and political reporters alike are busy arguing that President Obama will have a tough time winning North Carolina this year. They’re right, to a point. But they’re missing the point: As long as we’re debating Obama’s chances of winning North Carolina, Obama is winning the presidential race. Obama does not have…
Read MoreThe 61 Percent
A TAPster had this interesting take on Governor Perdue’s “Mississippi” comment about the gay-marriage vote: “What some North Carolinians may find offensive about the governor’s remarks is that 61% of the voters have spoken, and in a democracy, that is how we establish public policy, so why should our governor publicly chastise the 61%…
Read MoreThin Skin
Democrats think they’ve found a weakness in Pat McCrory – one that can be fatal in a politician: thin skin. Oddly, it’s the same sensitivity Mitt Romney showed when the Obama campaign raised questions about his business career. Romney took it as a personal attack. McCrory reacted the same way to the Tree.com ad.…
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