Posts by Gary Pearce
Gary Responds to Carter
Well, Carter, to be fair, I didn’t call you “a bigoted skunk.” I’ve grown more mellow these days, and I try to avoid name-calling. Instead, I said your ad for Renee Ellmers was “an appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice.” I think that is a fair statement. “Sixty Minutes” had an interesting piece about the…
Read MoreThe Obama Voters
In 2004, George Bush beat John Kerry by 51-47 percent in the popular vote. Four years later, President Obama beat John McCain 50-49 among the same voters. A significant swing, but not huge. What gave Obama a landslide victory was the surge of new voters. Among people voting in 2008 for the first…
Read MoreCarter’s ‘Victory Mosque’ Ad
Birds fly, fish swim and Carter Wrenn pushes the envelope to the edge. That’s what they do. Like him or not, Carter will boldly go where others fear to tread. He did it for Jesse Helms. He did it when he and Helms had a falling-out and Carter challenged the senator to disclose…
Read MoreJimmy Superior
Jimmy Carter’s latest gaffe – that his post-Presidency was “superior” to other ex-Presidents – struck me as deeply revealing. Carter’s work since leaving office 30 years ago has been both admirable and annoying – just like the man and his Presidency. If you weren’t there, it’s hard to realize what Carter meant when…
Read MoreJFK, NC and Me
The N&O had a letter today and a guest column last week about John Kennedy’s campaign visit to North Carolina 50 years ago – September 1960. I had my own brush with history that day. Kennedy was campaigning with Terry Sanford, who was running for governor. Sanford had broken with most of the North…
Read MoreThe Republican Divide
In retrospect, the Republican primary for the 13th Congressional District – Bernie Reeves versus Bill Randall – was a microcosm of what’s happening in the Republican Party nationally. It’s the Golfers versus the Grizzlies, the Country Clubbers versus the churchgoers, the K Street crowd versus the cul-de-sac crowd, the Establishment versus the pitchfork-carriers, the…
Read MoreSarah and John
Vanity Fair magazine has a scathing profile of Sarah Palin that sounds eerily familiar. Below are some of the articleâs characterizations of Palin. I ask you: What other well-known political figure does this sound like? âErratic behavior and a pattern of lyingâ¦â âSarah Palinâs connection with her audience is complete.â …
Read MoreBarking Up the Wrong Tree
There’s an old cartoon that showed an owner fussing at his dog: “Bad dog, Rover. Don’t ever do that again, Rover. You know better, Rover. Bad dog, Rover.” Then the cartoon showed what the dog was hearing: “Blah, blah, Rover, blah, blah, blah, Rover, blah, blah, Rover.” I’m afraid that’s all the voters…
Read MoreStorming the Castle
The Republican Party is seeing exactly the same thing in its primaries this year that the Democratic Party saw in its presidential primaries in 2008. An inexperienced, untested and nearly unknown upstart challenges a pillar of the party’s political establishment. Propelled by the enthusiasm of inspired new voters, the upstart upends the odds-on favorite in…
Read MoreThe Other Budget Gap
The breakfast conversation the other day was about what happens with the state budget next year if Republicans win the state House or Senate this year. They won’t raise taxes. So they’ll have to cut $3 billion or so out of a $19 billion budget. My Republican friend said that can be done…
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