Posts by Gary Pearce
The Best Way to Win?
Wake County school bond supporters say the bonds are “the best way to pay.” But is that message enough to win? Bond supporters were smart to hire Democrat Brad Crone and Republican Ballard Everett to run their campaign. Brad ran a smart campaign against school bonds some years ago. His slogan was: “There’s a better…
Read MoreIs Rove’s 72-hour Plan a Myth?
I’m looking forward to this year’s election not just because there will be a Democratic sweep, but also because it will destroy the myth of Karl Rove’s 72-hour voter-turnout machine. While most Republicans expect to lose the House and hold the Senate by only one seat, The Washington Post reports that Bush and Rove are…
Read MoreSchool Bond Prospects No Better
The Wake County school bonds are winning the elites but losing the voters. Supporters have organized an impressive list of business backers. But that has not impressed voters. No poll has shown more than 45 percent of Wake voters supporting the bonds. And the bonds will not pick up undecided voters. That means 45 percent…
Read MoreA Good Year to be a Democrat
A Republican pollster told me last week that this year’s elections are looking extremely bad for his side and good for mine. Four weeks from today, the world will look very different: Democrats will control both the House and Senate in Washington; They will keep their majorities in both houses of the North Carolina legislature,…
Read MoreAre You Safer Today?
Ronald Reagan won the presidential debate – and probably the election – by famously asking a simple question in 1980: Is America safer, stronger and more respected in the world today than four years ago? This election bears asking the same question. We know now that North Korea has the bomb. Here is what President…
Read MoreWarner’s Warning
Senator John Warner, Virginia Republican, is former Secretary of the Navy, now chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a reliable supporter of Bush’s policies in Iraq. So when he says the situation there is “drifting sideways,” Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice have some explaining to do. I didn’t see Warner’s comments in the…
Read MoreRandom Political Notes
With the campaign in its final month, here are some predictions and observations: Speaker Black’s troubles won’t hurt Democrats in North Carolina. Oh, voters don’t like what they’re hearing. They just don’t know which party controls the House or whether Black is a Democrat or Republican. The Wake County school bonds are going down to…
Read MoreMemories Like Elephants
Washington Republicans are suffering from bad memories these days. Condi Rice can’t remember a “supposed meeting” in which she was briefed about Osama’s threat before 9/11. Dennis Hastert can’t remember two fellow congressmen telling him about Mark Foley’s electronic adventures with teenaged pages. Who are they kidding? Click to Read & Post Comments
Read MoreGeddings’ Political Sin
A jury will decide whether former Lottery Commissioner Kevin Geddings violated a criminal law. But he clearly broke the first law of politics: Don’t surprise me. Geddings argues that he did not deceive anyone about his ties for Scientific Games. At the time he was appointed to the Lottery Commission, he argues, he was not…
Read MoreGOP Family Values, Foley Style
In the final weeks of the 1994 campaign, smelling a rout, Newt Gingrich blamed Democrats for the moral climate that he said led a South Carolina woman to drown her two children. So Republicans can hardly complain about Democrats hammering away at the Mark Foley affair. Maybe this is the sign that 2006 will be…
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