Posts by Gary Pearce
Mister Hot and Mister Cool
John Edwards and Barack Obama double-teamed Hillary Clinton at last week’s Democratic debate. Hillary’s resulting stumble could turn the Democratic coronation into a contest. Edwards, as he has throughout the campaign, was Mister Hot. He focused on Hillary the courtroom aggressiveness that he kept hidden in 2004. He was perfectly comfortable going after her. Obama…
Read MorePerdue Digs Deeper
When you’re in a hole, the first rule is: Stop digging. But Beverly Perdue’s campaign is digging a deeper hole every week. I sound like a broken record about this. But her campaign looks broken. The News & Observer found that her fundraising report failed to provide the occupations and employers for more than 300…
Read Morethe 100-County Tour
Every campaign, some fool candidate promises to campaign in all 100 counties. Every time, I say: You’re crazy. This year, GOP gubernatorial candidate Fred Smith and Democratic Senate hopeful Jim Neal are drinking the 100-county Kool Aid. I’d like to put a lie detector on them after they go to, say, 60 counties. Ask them…
Read MoreDown Hill(ary)
This could go down as the week the Democratic presidential race turned against Hillary Clinton. She was everybody’s favorite target in the Democratic debate. She was panned for her performance. She confused everybody with her position on licenses for illegal immigrants. And she looks bad keeping the lock on her White House records. As I…
Read MoreWho’s With Pelosi?
Who’s With Pelosi? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be in Raleigh today, speaking at Meredith College. The question is: Who will be with her? That is, which Democratic politicians will be there to have their picture taken with the San Francisco Democrat – and who will duck it? Specifically, will either Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue…
Read MoreJohn Drescher Stakes His Ground
The appointment of John Drescher as Executive Editor of The N&O means the paper will be led by a newsman who knows North Carolina politics and government. Drescher wrote a great book about the 1960 Terry Sanford-Beverly Lake race for Governor. He is the son-in-law of Phil Carlton, one of Jim Hunt’s oldest friends. Drescher’s…
Read MoreKay and the Gay Factor
A Democrat poses this question about Kay Hagan’s run for U.S. Senate: “It is going to be interesting to see how voters respond to Hagan’s candidacy and whether she can dance around the question (or put it to bed) of whether she is running b/c Neal is gay. If you think back to the Sanders/Gantt…
Read MoreThe Real Issue for Perdue and Moore
If Richard Moore and Beverly Perdue stop sniping over resumes, degrees and ages, they will see the real target in the Governor’s race. And they can remind voters why North Carolina needs a Democratic governor next year. Republicans always say that North Carolina’s schools are failing. Their solution, always, is to starve the schools of…
Read MoreStudent Video Trips Up Edwards Campaign
John Edwards’s campaign staffers blew it when they blew up over a UNC journalism student’s video story. No more than few thousand people would have seen the original post on YouTube. After the campaign went nuclear, hundreds of thousands saw it. It’s a double whammy for Edwards. First a minor story gets more attention. Then…
Read MoreMercedes Drove Us to Incentives
The News & Observerâs recent examination of economic incentives said âattitudes have changedâ here since North Carolina lost Mercedes to Alabama in 1993. Actually, attitudes changed because we lost Mercedes. The story accurately noted that North Carolina didnât get the Mercedes plant because we didnât match Alabamaâs incentives. The N&O noted that my old boss,…
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