General
Tillis, the GOP and God
Thom Tillis is a lot like Mitt Romney, and he learned one big thing from Romney’s 2012 campaign: Don’t get on the same stage and same page with the nuts in his party. So Tillis may be making the right strategic decision by ducking the WRAL debate. It’s better to look chicken than to…
Read MoreSon of Speaker Ban
“Will no one rid me of this troublesome professor?” (Paraphrasing King Henry II on Thomas Becket.) Fifty years ago, the legislature brought shame on North Carolina, dishonor on themselves and harm to UNC when the honorables passed the Speaker Ban Law to protect college students from a feared invasion of pro-Communist speakers. Eventually, wiser…
Read MoreDeadly Politics
Misery loves company and right here, in Raleigh, it’s led to a pretty strange alliance. Governor McCrory’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources and President Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency have joined arms. To whip the ‘coal ash’ problem. According to the newspaper reports the Governor is “pleased” but, so far, the EPA hasn’t…
Read MoreStraw Polls
When it comes to straw polls, from cradle to grave, there’s a whiff of deception in the air. Hardly anything is what it seems. For instance, political groups don’t take straw polls to measure voters’ opinions or candidates’ strengths – they take them to gin-up attendance for meetings. By telling a cash-strapped candidate, We’re…
Read MoreIs Good Money Bad Too?
This is a story about how even “good” money – that is, money spent for candidates and causes I like – can be bad. It’s a story about how outside donors and independent campaigns, not candidates and office-holders, are setting the political agenda. You can walk, and run, but money talks. Most every…
Read MoreThe Cape and not the Bull
Long ago and far away, in bygone days, during Jim Hunt’s first incarnation as Governor, we (Jesse Helms’ political organization) lit on what we thought was a grand idea: We ’d do a TV ad attacking Governor Hunt for giving AFL-CIO boss Wilber Hobby government CETA grants. We made the ad, tore into Wilbur…
Read MoreRethinking Koch
Maybe the attack-Koch strategy is a good idea after all. I had questions, but I’m coming around. Every story needs a villain. That lesson is as old as the Bible. (See: the Serpent, Garden of Eden.) Just as Republicans here want to make William Barber of the NAACP the face of the Democratic…
Read MoreBe Careful What You Wish For …
A year ago when my health insurance went up I grumbled and blamed Blue Cross. Then, this year, my new bill arrived and the premium went up again even more. But this time I didn’t blame Blue Cross. I laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of one man: Barack Obama. In bygone days,…
Read MoreObamaCare: A New Ball Game?
Just as ObamaCare divides the nation politically, it divides Democrats strategically. Does it spell disaster in November, or can we score points with it? The President took the ball to the basket this week. His message: 7-plus million Americans signed up. Millions of Americans can now get health care. Republicans are just obstructionists and…
Read MoreAchin’ for Clay
Carter said a “celebrity” campaign was different. Now I get it. Working with Clay Aiken is unlike any campaign I’ve seen. Aiken starts with the most valuable quality a candidate can have today. He is a genuine political outsider in a time when voters are disgusted with politics. And he has near-universal name recognition.…
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