Posts by Gary Pearce
Rough Waters for Hillary
The Main Media just finished anointing Hillary as the front-runner. Now they’re attacking her for running as the front-runner. I predicted it in a blog last week, where I compared reporters to birds flitting from wire to wire. So now Hillary is excoriated for debate temporizing, cautious positioning and even her way of laughing. The…
Read MoreAiming at Liddy
Some Democrats worry that no big name is challenging Senator Dole. Don’t despair. The field has narrowed to Kay Hagan and Grier Martin. Both would be good candidates, and both are looking hard at the race. First, they’re looking at is money. Dole says she’ll raise $20 million for her reelection. That’s just bluster. Still,…
Read MoreNational Primary?
George Bush has failed as Commander-in-Chief, so now he’s trying for Commentator-in-Chief. He predicted in an interview that Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic nomination and then would lose to the Republican, whom he did not predict. Let’s set aside whether this was just a ploy to energize discouraged Republicans (Bush certainly can’t energize them…
Read MoreBelow the Belt
Raleigh City Council candidate Mary-Ann Baldwin is the victim of a high-tech version of old-time gutter politics. Supporters of an opponent, Russ Stephenson, set up a fake blog purporting to be by Baldwin. To give you a taste of the tone, one of the fake postings was signed “Mary Fucking Baldwin.” Nice. There’s nothing new…
Read MoreNew Story Line to Come
Hunter S. Thompson once compared national political reporters to birds on a wire. One lands on a wire, the rest follow. One flies to another wire, they all follow. So look for the birds to land on a new Hillary Clinton wire soon. The conventional wisdom, as confirmed on Page One of Sunday’s The New…
Read MoreKeep Your Head in the Heat of Battle
In campaigns, the worst wounds are often self-inflicted. Witness two A+ political operatives I know who made D- mistakes last week. Julie White, who works for gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore, got caught using a state computer to request public-records info on Lt. Beverly Perdue. Plus, as the News & Observer’s Under the Dome has chronicled,…
Read MoreThe Phony War Debate
America is adrift in Iraq – and losing the war. But the political debate is about Hillary’s health care plan, Edwards’ attacks on Hillary’s “corporate insiders,” Obama’s tax plan, Moveon.org attacking Gen. Petraeus, Rudy attacking Moveon for attacking Petraeus and Fred Thompson being lazy. General Petraeus made clear in his congressional testimony that we’re not…
Read MoreHillary Calls on Women
Several women in Raleigh reported getting taped phone calls from Hillary Clinton this week – with a message aimed right at women. I’m told Hillary says something like: When I’m President, women and their daughters will walk a little bit taller in America. The strategy is brilliant. It’s aimed at the most important voting group…
Read MorePark the Hypocrisy
Carter has written some hard-hitting pieces lately against the Goodyear-Bridgestone incentives. All the Republican candidates for Governor agree that incentives are bad. So do conservative groups like the John Locke Society. It looks like all good Republican conservatives are against subsidizing private companies. Or maybe not. The biggest subsidy boondoggle bubbling today is from North…
Read MoreVeto Shifts the Balance of Power
The media focused on how Governor Easley avoided suffering his first veto override on the tiremaker-incentive bill. But the real story is how fundamentally the veto has changed the balance of power in Raleigh. I blogged before that the veto, which Jim Hunt got passed in 1996, was Hunt’s gift to Easley. Both Jack Betts…
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