Posts by Gary Pearce
The 2020 candidate you haven’t heard of…yet
He’s the first announced Democratic presidential candidate for 2020. He’s the first to campaign in all of Iowa’s 99 counties. He has an intriguing personal story. He has what hits me as the right message. And you’ve never heard of him. Because the media hasn’t picked up on him. You read it here first. He’s…
Read MoreA Democratic wave is coming, but…
All signs show a big Democratic year coming. Unless Putin hijacks it. Or Democrats blow it. Which we could do. Politics today is volatile. And unpredictable. And subject to last-minute breaks. (See Jim Comey and Hillary’s emails.) But we know the basic shape of the 2018 elections. Democrats are fired up and ready to vote.…
Read MoreClicking on the N&O
My print-free experiment with The News & Observer is clicking along well. Still, like any loyal reader, I’ve got some bones to pick. First the good news. Even though I don’t get the paper in my driveway anymore, I still read it most mornings. I click on the website’s E-edition, then flip through the pages…
Read MoreDogging Trump
A reader offers this suggestion: If I were a Democratic pundit I would, henceforth, refer to our President as “Putin’s Poodle.” In the first place, it’s true. He respects and trusts Dictator Putin more than he respects and trusts American intelligence services. In the second place, Trump can sure dish it out. You remember —…
Read MoreBert Bennett
In his terse, clipped way, Bert Bennett once summed up perfectly why we’re Democrats and why he helped elect Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt: “Sanford and Hunt had the right attitude: human dignity, based on ethics and work and not color or background or money.” Rob Christensen’s N&O profile today caught the essence of Bert,…
Read MoreMayor McFarlane and the Stephenson Gang
Back when Jim Hunt was Governor (the good old days) he routinely had job approval ratings in the mid to high 60s. He was one of the most popular governors in America, until Carter & Co. spent two years and $20 million knocking him down in 1984. Even then, Hunt bounced back into the 60s…
Read MoreTrump’s character counts
Elections are usually about issues. But sometimes character overwhelms issues. Like with Trump. The Gallup Poll asked: “Thinking about Donald Trump as a person, do you have a positive or negative opinion of him?” Only 36 percent of voters – just over one in three – said positive; 55 percent said negative. Among Independents, only…
Read MoreThe power of positive messaging
Sometimes Carter and I get asked to speak about the 1984 Hunt-Helms Senate race. Some of the people we see weren’t born then. For them, it’s like going to the Dinosaur Museum – and the dinosaurs come out and talk. Because we lost, I’m often asked what was the biggest lesson I learned. That’s easy,…
Read MoreWhat would Mister Rogers do?
You knew there was something just a little too good about Fred Rogers, didn’t you? Now all is revealed, thanks to a new documentary. Brace yourself: Mister Rogers was a lifelong Republican. That’s about it. Otherwise, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” shows him to have been just as kind, wise and decent in real life…
Read MoreCooper’s historic fight
Governor Cooper has been in some fights in his political life. This is the fight of his political life. And North Carolina’s. November’s legislative elections will decide the course of Cooper’s first term – and perhaps his entire tenure and his place in history. The elections could set North Carolina’s course for the next decade…
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