Posts by Gary Pearce
Be Like Rosie
North Carolina Democrats have reason to be optimistic about this election. But the ghosts of 2016 and 2020 keep us scared. Both years, our hopes were high. In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s campaign was so optimistic about North Carolina that she held an election-night rally in Raleigh’s Reynolds Coliseum. Notwithstanding performances by Lady Gaga and Jon…
Read MoreStarring Mark Robinson!
Mark Robinson should get an Emmy for Most Appearances in Other Campaigns’ TV Ads. For months, he has starred in Josh Stein’s ads, admonishing women who didn’t “keep your skirt down” and warning that “some folks need killing.” Stein’s ads drove Robinson’s negative ratings so high that every Democrat from Kamala Harris down is linking…
Read MoreA Scary Time
Republicans usually are better than Democrats at closing out elections, because they’re better at scaring voters. This year, what Republicans will do if they win should scare voters. As they do every election, Trump and MAGA are stoking fears about non-existent crime waves and fictitious immigrant invasions. And now there’s “tax-paid sex-change operations for prison…
Read MoreThe Kennedy Ideal
Ethel Kennedy’s death recalls a time when hope and idealism triumphed over hate and fear. Robert and Ethel Kennedy were noisy, passionate and boisterous, a contrast to cool, stylish and sophisticated Jack and Jackie. But the two very different brothers became “the Kennedys” who stood down the Soviet Union in Cuba and stood up for…
Read MoreFlood of Lies
First came cataclysmic floods. Then came the cascade of lies. The lies – and the lying liars who tell them – compound the suffering in Western North Carolina and complicate the recovery. Like supercharged hurricanes fueled by superheated ocean waters, the lies explode in today’s social-media ecosystem. Elon Musk has turned X/Twitter into a breeding…
Read MoreRise and Fall
As Hurricane Helene ravaged the mountains, my wife and I were thousands of miles away, on a two-week trip to Turkey and Greece. We followed news of the devastation as we toured historic sites in Istanbul, Gallipoli, Ephesus, Rhodes, Crete, Athens, Mycenae and Delphi. We walked on the stones of ancient empires that rose and…
Read MoreReaping What They Sowed
For decades, North Carolina Republicans have been bottom-feeding. With Mark Robinson, they hit bottom. Since the 1960s, they’ve opposed civil rights, voting rights and equal rights for anyone who suffered discrimination. Since Jesse Helms’ first election to Senate in 1972, they’ve appealed to hate, fear and racism. They’ve trolled the darkest depths of politics. Every…
Read MoreBlue NC?
Kamala Harris rode a post-debate wave into North Carolina last week. The media should stop asking if she can win the state. Clearly, she can. Even before the debate, polls showed her leading Trump here 49-46. Last March, Trump led President Biden by 5. An eight-point swing is huge in today’s polarized electorate. Then there’s…
Read MoreA Master Class
Kamala Harris could have done one thing better Tuesday night. Otherwise, it was a master class in debate prep and performance. She seemed nervous answering the first question: “When it comes to the economy, do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” She began, “So, I was raised as a…
Read MoreSmackdown
The split screens said it all, even when the mics were muted. Trump was angry, unhinged and afraid to look Kamala Harris in the eye. Harris was in command all night. It was the most dominating performance in the history of presidential debates since JFK won the very first one in 1960. It was the…
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