Posts by Gary Pearce
Blood and Tears
President Obama soared. Sarah Palin bombed. And, of course, John Boehner almost broke down. Let’s examine all three performances – and the implications. When even Fox News and Glenn Beck praise him, you know Obama hit a home run. But the most remarkable thing about a remarkable speech was that he had to…
Read MorePower Center
Forget the politicians in Raleigh. The most powerful person in North Carolina is Bill Johnson. Under the Duke-Progress merger, Johnson will be CEO of the new company – one of the biggest utilities in the nation and a corporation on the scale of ExxonMobil. He will be a powerful force not just in…
Read MoreA Voice of Sanity
Well, I predicted it Monday (“Commence Firing”). And while overheated political rhetoric may not necessarily lead to violence, violence certainly leads to overheated political rhetoric. Sarah Palin says it’s a “blood libel” to criticize her for placing Democrats — including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — under crosshairs during the 2010 election and talking about…
Read MoreThe Reckoning
Unlike some Democrats, I’m not in despair about the Republican Party’s new power. It’s not just that I’m glad the GOP will share some – or bear all – of the blame for unpopular cuts. Rather, it’s time we finally decide how much government we want – and how much we’re willing to…
Read MoreCommence Firing
It’s predictable that some Democrats will implicate Sarah Palin and the Tea Party in the Arizona shootings. It’s predictable that Republicans will accuse those Democrats of seeking to exploit a tragedy perpetrated by a nut. The unfortunate truth is that in the history of our politics, as Rap Brown once said, violence is…
Read MoreNot Everybody Loved Marc
A veteran of the legislature’s hallways and byways took exception to my sympathetic and OBX-centric view of Marc Basnight. Even the Charlotte Observer gushed, “It’s a testament to his place in N.C. politics that even his political adversaries spoke glowingly of him.” Here’s the legislative vet’s dissenting view: “Leaders from other areas of the…
Read MoreBurr for Veep?
Maybe there was more than I realized behind Senator Richard Burr’s vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Last week, I gave him credit for doing the right thing. But an astute Burr-watcher – not a partisan either way – noted that Burr took a different tack on what was arguably the key vote:…
Read MoreMarc of OBX
Let others talk about what Marc Basnight did for the university system, clean water, open records, the Democratic Party, etc., etc. Those of us who love and live on the Outer Banks have selfish reasons to thank him. When Governor Hunt put Marc on the Board of Transportation in 1977, getting to Nags…
Read MoreThe Wait Is Almost Over
We’ve waited nearly 30 years, but it’s finally here. Thirty years ago this month, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. He said government was the problem, not the solution. He promised that – finally – someone would really, really cut government spending. We’ve waited. And waited. And waited. Reagan didn’t cut anything big. Nor…
Read MoreHomeless Blue Dogs?
The N&O front-pager about “North Carolina’s three conservative Democrats” – Congressmen Heath Shuler, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre – asks whether there’s a place for Blue Dogs in today’s Democratic Party. For perspective, I turn as always to my work on Jim Hunt’s biography. (I can’t help it; I spent four years on it.…
Read More