Posts by Gary Pearce
Walter “The Dodger” Dalton?
Some free advice for State Senator Walter Dalton, Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor: Don’t dodge debates. Don’t give your opponents that club to beat you with. Dalton is saying he won’t participate in debates matching the Democratic candidates. So one opponent, Hampton Dellinger, is riding Dalton hard about it. Dalton needs to wake up, smell…
Read MoreFreedom Requires Religion?
The Republican presidential race is serving one useful purpose. It is forcing us to think about the role of religion in politics. Too many people either assume or dismiss that role without thinking hard about it. Examine this statement by Mitt Romney: “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom.” Really? Does freedom really require…
Read MoreHucka-Dean
Mike Huckabee is to this presidential race as Howard Dean was to 2004: Both were small-start Governors with modest records. Both started out as minor candidates. Both catapulted to the front by capturing a bloc of voters who were leaderless: the Democratic antiwar left and the Republican Christian right. Both turned out to have a…
Read MoreWe Know Hillary
Hillary Clinton is imploding in Iowa. Will she finish second or third? So her campaign started a website about “The Hillary You Don’t Know.” Voters do know her. They’ve watched her up close for 16 years. She can’t do what Bill Clinton did in 1992, when he reintroduced himself mid-campaign as The Man From Hope.…
Read MoreHeating-Up Watch
Here is the latest sighting of the Most Overused Cliché in Political Reporting. CNNâs coverage of the Iowa race early Tuesday morning was bannered: âRace Heating Up.â Reporters especially love using âheating upâ when the weather is snowy and below zero. As in: âIt may be cold and snowy here in Iowa, but the race…
Read MoreIn Defense of “Teardowns”
One of our frequent readers – and commentators on Raleigh issues – sent us the following email. It gives a sensible perspective on the teardown/infill fight now going on at the City Council. So here it is, in full: This Council has a solution in search of a problem. The solution is regulation to limit…
Read MoreThe More Things Change…
It is true that the presidential race – in both parties – has seen numerous twists, turns, surprises and swings in momentum. But it is also true that the fundamental dynamic of both races is the same today as a year ago. For Democrats, the question is still who will make it a two-person race…
Read MoreSledgehammer Time Again
Everybody who wants to know what’s next in the Raleigh Scandals can get the preview by reading the following email sent out this morning by Joe (the Sledgehammer) Sinsheimer. Inadvertently, I’m sure, Joe revealed the emails of everyone to whom he sent the statement. That makes interesting reading, but I’m not passing the list along,…
Read MoreWhat’s Wrong With the Highway Patrol?
I can save the State of North Carolina $98,000. The state has given a contract that size to a consulting company “to conduct an in-depth review of the state Highway Patrol’s policies for hiring, training and promoting troopers.” Governor Easley ordered the review after a series of embarrassing cases of trooper misconduct, including some titillating…
Read MoreThe Big O
Oprah Winfrey has shown she can make best-sellers out of books, fads out of diet plans and Dr. Phil out of Dr. Phil. But can she make a front-runner out of Obama? Mr. Conventional Wisdom says no: Celebrity endorsements don’t move voters. But that’s not what Oprah does. She creates The Buzz of The New.…
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