Posts by Gary Pearce
Reading to the right
Sunday’s Nonfiction Best Seller list in The New York Times was disturbing reading. Three – count ‘em, three – of the top four best-sellers were written by Fox News commentators. And Number 10 on the list was by Dinesh D’Souza, who may or may not be on Fox (I wouldn’t know). What does this tell…
Read MoreIt’s not about Trump, stupid
“It’s the economy, stupid.” (Sign in the 1992 Clinton war room.) For Trump, it’s always about Trump. For his acolytes, it’s all about Trump. For Steve Bannon, 2018 is all about Trump (so he can get back into the game, the news and the money). Democrats, don’t take the bait. Voters, real people, have strong…
Read MoreThe Eight-Year Itch
Politics is volatile and unpredictable, but one iron law prevails: The pendulum always swings back the other way. The last big swing was 2010. That was the first mid-term after the stunning election of a new kind of President whose first two years in office drove his opponents bonkers – and to the polls. 2018…
Read MoreA tale of two party leaders
A sharp-eyed TAPster noticed a big difference between two potential 2020 opponents: Governor Cooper is rewriting the book on how to lead and strengthen a party, helping raise nearly $6 million into NCDP through Break the Majority to support legislative candidates statewide and break the Republican supermajority. Break the Majority is giving Democrats the financial…
Read MoreThe 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…
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