Posts by Gary Pearce
The Myth of Fred Thompson
I bet Fred Thompson’s presidential prospects are no more real than the TV and movie characters he plays. He’s done the Dance of the Seven Veils about running for months now. Why doesn’t he get in the race? My guess is that he’s one of these politicians who wants the office but doesn’t want to…
Read MoreThe Woman From the Middle
In the 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton had sewn up the Democratic nomination, but was trailing George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot in the polls. So – at the Democratic Convention – he reintroduced himself as “The Man from Hope.” He and his consultants painted that picture to counter the popular view of Clinton as a…
Read MoreRepublicans Revert to Form on Immigration
George Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative” but hasn’t governed that way – until it came to immigration reform. But his own party is having none of his compassion toward immigrants. By voting 38-18 against his immigration bill, Senate Republicans officially certified Bush as a lame duck President. This is no surprise. Republicans reverted to…
Read MoreJim Black Out of the Frying Pan…
It looked for a while like disgraced ex-speaker Jim Black might have stolen a march on Hanging Judge Jim Dever. But Dever taught Black and his lawyers a lesson in the law and politics. Black’s lawyers asked Dever to recuse himself from sentencing. The N&O said they “argued that Dever, a Republican and former Raleigh…
Read MoreNetroots Help or Hurt?
Are the “netroots” the Democrats’ Moral Majority? The Internet-powered antiwar left gives the Democrats grassroots energy, just like religious fundamentalists have for the Republicans since 1980. But the netroots can be dictatorial and extreme, like the Religious Right. Here’s how powerful they are: Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid both were afraid to buck them on…
Read MoreThe Myth of Al Gore
A cry rises from the Democratic masses: “Run, Al, Run!” No, don’t, Al. Don’t run. The only place you can go from here is down. The minute you get in the presidential race, you lose about half the support you have now. Because they’re for Hillary, Obama or Edwards. The attack machines will start up…
Read MoreRepublican Family Values
If Fred Thompson gets into the Republican presidential race, there will be four major candidates: Thompson, McCain, Giuliani and Romney. If my math is correct, the four have – between them – a total of eight marriages. In fact, as James Carville points out, the only one of them who had just one wife is…
Read MoreTax That Fellow Under the Tree
With apologies to Keith Olberman of MSNBC, here are my nominations for the worse, worser and worsest people in Wake County. All of them for saying in The News & Observer that they don’t want to pay taxes for schools. Worse: Carridene Narron, 83, of Raleigh, a retired title examiner at the state Division of…
Read MoreRepublican Legislature in 08?
There is talk around the legislature that some veteran Democratic Senators will not run for reelection again – and that Marc Basnight may be serving his last term as President Pro Tem. Republicans certainly would welcome that. Some restive Democrats might even say good riddance. But the Democrats need to ponder their chances of keeping…
Read MoreHeroes
You think about heroes when you sit in the hot sun at a Memorial Day ceremony. The ceremony Monday was in Murfreesboro, a tiny town in Hertford County in northeastern North Carolina. I went with my mother and my two children, because my dad’s name is on a veterans’ memorial the town’s residents built this…
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