Posts by Gary Pearce
TrumPutin
What exactly did Donald Trump mean when he said Vladimir Putin is a “better leader” than President Obama and “is doing a better job”? Does he mean Russia is a better country? That it has a stronger economy? A fairer society? Better government? Or is more respected and admired around the world? Or does he…
Read MoreTwo Americas
The Democratic and Republican conventions offered two starkly different visions of America. Here’s how this old Democrat sees them. Hillary Clinton’s is bright and optimistic. Donald Trump’s is dark and pessimistic. Clinton says there’s hope. Trump says he’s the only hope. Clinton is about love and unity. Trump is about fear and loathing. Clinton says…
Read MoreEnd of the Obama era
As President Obama joked on Jimmy Fallon’s show not long ago, “How do you like me now?” Well, pretty good, the polls show. Especially as we ponder what comes next. As Michelle and Barack elegantly and eloquently exit the Democratic convention this week, let’s salute what they brought to the White House: eight years of…
Read MoreBerning down the house
The bitterest fights are always inside the family. So it is with the Republican and Democratic conventions. Donald Trump has Ted Cruz (and John Kasich and Jeb Bush and…). Hillary Clinton has Bernie Sanders. At least Sanders endorsed Clinton. But not all his supporters buy it. There is a certain self-righteousness among some Sanders supporters…
Read MoreWhy Clinton raised Kaine
Hillary Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine is about more than winning the battleground state (excuse me, Commonwealth) of Virginia. It’s about a seismic shift in the Presidential chessboard this year – and for years to come. The Clinton campaign calculates that she must win Virginia, North Carolina and Florida (57 total electoral votes) if Donald…
Read MoreHillary steps in
Hillary Clinton has the greatest gift in politics: a flawed, unpopular opponent. Still, she should use the Democratic convention to fix four big problems. First, she’s a status quo candidate in a change year. She and Bill have been on the stage for 25 years. And she is something of a third Obama term. The…
Read MoreWe’re on radio
Carter and I talked with WUNC Radio’s Jeff Tiberii on “what North Carolinians should expect from presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the battleground state.” You can listen here.
Read MoreWrapping up the Republicans
Today, some random notes from the GOP convention: There’s a new Republican slogan. “Make America Hate Again.” Republicans deeply admire Michelle Obama. When her lines are mouthed by a Slovenian swimsuit model. It’s okay to plagiarize. Joe Biden had to drop out of the 1988 presidential race when he got caught plagiarizing a British politician.…
Read MoreThe looming Republican disaster
North Carolina Republicans this year will get to experience what we Democrats went through in so many presidential elections: how to avoid going down with the Titanic. Because the S.S. Trump is going down, and it will be hard to avoid getting sucked into the vortex. The Republican convention is officially a disaster. It didn’t…
Read MoreTrump and Tricky Dick
You might not expect a presidential candidate to compare himself to America’s most crooked and disgraced President, but Donald Trump and his campaign chairman did just that this week. Trump and Chairman Paul Manafort said that, just as with Richard Nixon in 1968, Americans want a strong “law and order” leader at a time when…
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