General
Thorp’s Mistake
UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp made one mistake. When the News and Observer first asked him for Matt Kupec and Tami Hansbrough’s travel records, Chancellor Thorp said, I’ll get back with you. When he got back with them a week later he told them Kupec and Hansbrough had taken the trips together at the University’s…
Read MoreRomney Goes Negative – On the Voters
Mitt Romney is going to make me a sorry seer. I blog that he’s bound to come back, then he says the dumbest, most damaging and most unintentionally revealing thing I’ve heard in politics in ages. Romney’s “47 percent” remarks hurt him on so many levels. One, he’s wrong. I’m voting for Obama.…
Read MoreJohn Drescher Responds
N&O Executive Editor John Drescher retweeted my blog about UNC and the N&O, but took issue with another blog, in which a TAPster criticized the N&O for dedicating much of Sunday’s front page to a “40-year-old murder mystery.” Drescher responded: “At the moment, today’s MacDonald story is No. 3 on the newsobserver.com most-read list (which you…
Read MoreFearless Prediction
Everything is going wrong for the Romney campaign, but one thing is certain in politics: This too shall pass. So look for the story line to change dramatically at some point before the election. Election Day is seven weeks from today. That’s too long for the media to keep saying Romney is a terrible…
Read MoreThorp, UNC and the N&O
When I worked at the N&O eons ago, I remember seeing Bill Friday and several key aides frequently coming in to meet with then-Editor Claude Sitton and the editorial-page staff. Therein lies a lesson for UNC and Holden Thorp’s successor. In the end (see my blog last week), Thorp concluded he couldn’t hold on.…
Read MoreThis Just In…
A TAPster takes an admitted “cheap shot” at the N&O: “In the middle of a game-changing election season, the newspaper’s Sunday edition underscored its irrelevance by living in the past. “It ran an exhausting front-page rehash of a 40-year-old murder mystery and dragged former columnist Dennis Rogers from retirement to add his dusty…
Read MoreOwning Obamacare
A TAPster writes: “Ironically, or maybe not, the talking heads at Fox News who created the term ‘Obamacare’ as a derisive term for the Healthcare Reform Act have actually done the opposite. They defined the debate in Obama’s terms and not their own. How stupid! “Think if you are Ford Motors and BMW…
Read MoreHolden On
My fellow Wolfpackers will howl, but I feel for Holden Thorp. It’s no fun being pummeled in The News & Observer day after day. Thorp must ask himself every morning: How do I get ahead of this? A TAPster whose judgment I respect – and is a UNC alum – wrote: “Thorp’s professional…
Read MoreThe Unexpected Happens
Almost every day, sometimes a couple of times a day, someone will ask, Well, who’s going to win this election? It’s human nature: We want bedrock beneath our feet. But there is no answer to the question. Not even the handful of undecided voters have a clue how they’ll vote at the end of the…
Read MoreDalton on the Job
Walter Dalton put out a strong, thoughtful and comprehensive jobs plan this week. It was long on good ideas, but – unfortunately – short on political punch. It illustrates the challenge Democrats face in a short-attention span age. Republicans have the virtue of brevity and simplicity, if not quality. Pat McCrory has a bumper-sticker…
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