Posts by Gary Pearce
South Carolina Sliming
What is it about South Carolina primaries? Of course, this is the state that gave us Pitchfork Ben Tillman, Strom Thurmond and Lee Atwater. Not to mention secession and the Civil War. Now South Carolina has given us two of the sleaziest presidential primaries in history: the Bush mugging of John McCain in 2000 and…
Read MoreThe Clintons Play for Keeps
Hillary Clinton went hard after Barack Obama in Monday’s debate. In front of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Martin Luther King Day. She even got jeered. Why? Because the Clintons’ strategy is to shake, rattle and roll Obama. Take him away from the set-piece orations where he is a master. Put him on the defensive.…
Read MorePerdue Hits Sour Note on Parton
The worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted. Beverly Perdue was starting to draw blood by linking Richard Moore to the Randy Parton fiasco. Then The N&O got a copy of an email from one of her fundraisers soliciting $20,000 from the Parton crowd. It’s easy to say somebody should have seen this coming. As in:…
Read MoreThe Union Myth
This presidential race will leave in its wake a long trail of losers. One may be the myth of the unions’ voter-turnout power. John Edwards bet his campaign on the union myth. Then he lost Iowa, his must-win state. Then came Nevada. The TV talkheads told us Nevada was sewn up for Obama because he…
Read MoreDemocrats and Race
Forty years ago, the Democratic Party blew up over race. Can it happen again? In 1968, Richard Nixon and George Wallace invited conservative whites to leave the Democratic Party. They did – in droves. Today, Democrats seem at risk of fracturing over race again. It got this bad: Some Democrats seriously suspect that Hillary Clinton…
Read MoreEdward’s Chances
Hold the mayo on the John Edwards Is Toast Special. It is unlikely that Edwards will win the Democratic nomination. But this race has already seen five unlikelies – the rises of Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee and the resurrections of Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Four reasons to watch Edwards: Money. His…
Read MoreMemo to McCrory: Keep Your Manager
Dear Pat: Victoria Smith is doing a fine job as your campaign manager. Don’t let her go. You’re the Democrats’ biggest worry in the Governor’s race. You’re the only Republican who is moderate enough to give us a run in November. North Carolinians may elect Senators in the mold of Jesse Helms (Fred Smith) or…
Read MoreSpeaking of Smart Start
Now Beverly Perdue’s new TV ad talks about her support for Smart Start. I take great pride in this. Not that I had anything to do with Governor Hunt developing the program. But I did come up with the name. I didn’t steal it from the cereal. Our Smart Start came first. In fact, I’m…
Read MoreDo You Know Jack Yet?
Jack Nichols, running for State Senate in Wake County, has an interesting strategy. He has been running TV ads on cable news during busy political times. His consultants, Mike Davis and Perry Woods, say the ads are aimed at high-information primary voters. The strategy makes sense. So does the message: Jack is a progressive who…
Read MorePerdue 3 Moore 0
All I know about the Moore-Perdue debate is what I read in the N&O. And I see three points for Perdue: At first her attack on Moore for the Randy Parton-Local Government Commission looked like a reach. The N&O wrote that it was an overreach. But this dog may bite. At the least, anybody who…
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