Posts by Gary Pearce
Obama the Pol
Republicans are signaling their Obama bombs: the most liberal Senator, an elitist and an extremist. Also, follower of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and friend of Weathermen. Also, under the table, an anti-American Muslim. But the excellent, exhaustive profile of Obama the politician in The New York Times Sunday painted a far different picture. Obama is…
Read MoreShooting the Wounded
Bert Bennett, who was Governor Hunt’s political godfather, had a characteristically terse way of dismissing election post-mortems: “When you win, you did everything right. When you lose, you did everything wrong.” But there are always lessons to be learned after campaigns. Governor: Bev Perdue won for structural and strategic reasons. For more than 20 years,…
Read MoreTerry Sanford Would Be Proud
The first presidential primary I voted in was 1972. Terry Sanford, the champion of the New South, was running against George Wallace, back when Wallace was still a died-in-the-wool segregationist. Wallace humiliated Sanford in his home state, effectively ending Terry’s chances of being the moderate Southern elected President in the 1970s, instead of Jimmy Carter.…
Read MoreIt’s Over
Finally, North Carolina mattered in the presidential race. The home of hard-edged racial politics clinched the nomination of Barack Obama. And put the nail in the coffin for Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign expected to do much better here. They hoped to keep the margin to five points. They even dreamed of an upset. They…
Read MoreMaybe I Was Wrong
A few weeks ago, watching the Obama campaign’s energy, I predicted he would win North Carolina in a blowout, maybe by 20 points. A few months ago, watching the aggressiveness of Richard Moore’s campaign, I thought he might upset Bev Perdue. Today, Primary Day, looks different. It’s a reminder that – being exercises in human…
Read MoreWill We Unite?
Saturday’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner was the biggest ever in North Carolina. And the most divided. When the Governor gets booed, you know feelings run high. It’s like those state Republican conventions back in the 1970s when the moderates and the Jessecrats were at war. Can the split be healed by November? My guess is that it…
Read MoreIt’s All About Race
Jeremiah Wright has Swift-boated Barack Obama. Obama’s boat may not be sinking, but he will be foundering if Hillary wins Indiana and keeps it close in North Carolina. The North Carolina Democrats who support Clinton deny her campaign is about race. They (or, at least, most of them) sincerely don’t want it to be about…
Read MoreRace Cards
Talk about being the center of the political universe. North Carolina was it Tuesday. Barack Obama’s press conference on Jeremiah Wright could turn out to be the pivotal event of the presidential campaign. Unfortunately, that event – and two others the same day – was all about the issue that forever taints our politics: race.…
Read MoreMoore’s Klan Bomb
Richard Moore needs a bomb to blow up Bev Perdue’s lead. But the problem with a bomb is that it can go off in your hands. That appears to be what happened with his Ku Klux Klan ad. The ad was a reach to start with. When voters hear, in effect, that Perdue voted with…
Read MoreTwo Predictions
I’ll make two predictions about this election. One I’m sure about; the other, not so much. Not Sure: This could be a change election like 1960, 1968, 1980 or 1994 – with the impact felt for decades. Sure: The Democratic Party is growing increasingly anti-corporate. Only one thing can keep 2008 from being a watershed:…
Read More