General
Party Time
When people ask, “What are we going to do about the North Carolina Democratic Party?” there’s a temptation to say, “Not a damned thing. Let those people fight each other while the rest of us fight the Republicans.” But Thomas Mills, publisher of the estimable blog PoliticsNC, offers a more thoughtful and insightful viewpoint,…
Read MoreTurning the Presidential Race Upside Down
Bush’s steady and Hilary’s experienced and it all looks familiar but deep within the earth hidden rivers are flowing that may turn the Presidential race upside down. No one had seen a caliph or caliphate for a millennium. Then, suddenly, in Yemen, Nigeria, North Africa, Syria and Iraq we have caliphates – and women…
Read MoreToday’s Number: 48
One number jumps out of Public Policy Polling’s latest survey of the 2016 Governor’s race: 48. That’s the percentage of Independents who disapprove of Governor McCrory’s job performance. Only 32 percent approve. McCrory leads Roy Cooper among all voters by 44-39. But that includes a 43-28 McCrory lead among Independents. That’s not going to…
Read MoreClinton-Bush, the Sequel
One score and four years after Bubba beat Poppy, another presidential election could be a showdown between the Republican First Family and Democratic First Family. We shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the money, stupid. Since the 1970s (or earlier), George H.W. Bush has built a vast network of fundraisers and donors. He did it…
Read MoreIn the Morgue
EMS medics found Larry Green lying face down by the road with a head wound and no vital signs – he’d been hit by a car. But, then, when a state Medical Examiner, Dr. J.B. Perdue, arrived and opened Green’s jacket his chest and abdomen moved. A medic asked if Green was breathing. The…
Read MoreVows Sworn in Churches
Lord, deliver us – the Supreme Court is about to tell us who can and can’t marry. Marriage as an institution twists and turns back into the mists of time but will a judge even ask how – and why – it began? Are roots of marriage biological? Anthropological? Or theological? Is marriage a…
Read MoreCurses. Foiled Again.
Not long ago, I blogged that Democrats in the legislature should help Governor McCrory expand Medicaid (“Pass McCroryCare”). With Democratic votes and some Republicans, McCrory could overcome opposition from the legislative leadership. But a Raleigh group called the Carolina Partnership for Reform, which says it “was formed to advocate for a freedom-based agenda in…
Read MoreOne God? Or Two?
A young chaplain at Duke Chapel announced it was time for the University to transform its gothic cathedral into an enlightened multicultural center with Muslims chanting azans from the bell tower while Methodists prayed in the sanctuary below – and without knowing it she crossed an invisible line. Word spread and praying to two…
Read MoreBig Staff Envy
A TAPster with long experience in the General Assembly offers this: In reaction to Gary’s blog about “Big Government” and Speaker Moore’s laughably large staff, here are the three popular theories in Raleigh today about why Republican leaders like the Speaker and Lt. Governor think they can singlehandedly solve the state’s unemployment problem by…
Read MorePolite? Us?
Things have come to a pretty pass when a photo and story about Carter and me run under the headline: “Polite Disagreement.” This is our reward? After all we did to make Hunt-Helms one of the most bitter, negative and expensive races ever? After years, decades even, of earning reputations as tough, give-no-quarter political…
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