General
Tillis’ 1984
Thom Tillis is walking the same tightrope that Jim Hunt walked in his U.S. Senate race 30 years ago. But Tillis’ balance is even more precarious. Tillis today, like Hunt then, has to appeal to the broad November electorate and also pacify an extreme faction in his own party. Hunt’s problems came from…
Read MoreThe Next Ted Cruz?
The newspaper reporter asked if North Carolina’s Senate Primary was going to be the next litmus test of the Tea Party’s political muscle – and as fast as he could Greg Brannon’s campaign spokesman said ‘Yes’ then added the Primary was just like Senator Rand Paul’s election in Kentucky in 2010 and Senator Ted Cruz’s…
Read MoreCaring for the Poor In Style
A couple of weeks ago the News & Observer published a story that got folks stirred up over how the head of the Raleigh Housing Authority was making $280,000 a year and wining and dining his board of directors for $3,000 at a Christmas banquet at Raleigh’s elegant Second Empire Restaurant – all paid for by taxpayers.…
Read MoreThe Dithers
Back before Christmas when Congress struck its ‘big budget deal’ the newspapers were running stories left and right telling everyone how Round 2 of the Sequester was going to be aw-ful and terr-ible and croo-el. In one story a lady in Fayetteville told how the army was going to be so decimated by the…
Read MoreDon’t Blame Jim Hunt
Jim Hunt should respond swiftly and strongly to the base calumny that Pat McCrory has cast upon his reputation. Speaking this week at the Hunt Education Institute’s Holshouser Legislators Retreat, McCrory – according to the N&O – “praised former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt as a valued adviser.” McCrory was quoted as saying: “Jim Hunt…
Read MoreBridges, Bullies and Obamacare
Fearless Forecast: Obamacare won’t be a decisive issue in 2014, but Chris Christie’s bridge-gate will be in 2016. That sounds backwards. After all, polls right here at home show that Obamacare is dragging down Senator Hagan. And the buzz is that Christie’s poll ratings are holding up and Republicans are rallying around him. …
Read MoreWill Obama Get It Right?
Democrats fondly hope that, when he comes to NCSU tomorrow, President Obama finally gets his economic message right. He has struggled at that all five years in the White House. For all the good he has done, he has never done well at explaining what he’s doing. In retrospect, maybe he should have…
Read MoreDemocracy in Action
John Ledford, from up in the mountains, was a leader in local Democratic politics for years, then ran for sheriff of Madison County and won. Then, after a few years as sheriff, he got Democratic Governor Beverly Perdue to appoint him head of the Division of Alcohol and Law Enforcement, a job where he earned…
Read MoreBully at the Pulpit
Republicans can toss their Christie for President buttons, but they can learn a lesson from Governor Soprano. Pat McCrory can learn to take responsibility. He, Phil Berger and Thom Tillis (“whining…losers”) can learn that voters don’t like bullies. A TAPster (who once thought well of McCrory) noted the contrast between Christie and McCrory:…
Read MorePolitics in Columbialand
A long time long ago in the far away Kingdom of Columbialand two tribes battled over control of Congress for years then one of the tribes (the Republicans) split into two smaller tribes: The Pachyderms and the Tea Partiers. The Tea Partiers turned out to be an unusual tribe. They had a creed and they…
Read More