General
Those To Whom Evil Is Done
Call it an eye for an eye or a man (a politician) who does evil because evil was done to him – either way it’s an old tale. Russians using fake Facebook accounts to attack Hillary – that was the evil that was done; then Matt Osborne (the politician) did evil in return: During the…
Read MoreA Disguise
Governor Cooper explained in the newspaper he vetoed a bill because “Municipal charter schools set a dangerous precedent that could lead to taxpayer funded re-segregation.” The way the bill’s opponents see it the suburbs where the schools would be built are white (or ‘whiter’) than the rest of the schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District,…
Read MoreIt Doesn’t Add Up
Almost every politician in Washington supported the Criminal Justice Reform Bill – so what are the odds all those politicians, this time, got it right? According to the newspaper 53,000 prisoners, almost a third of the inmates in federal prisons, are going to be released – which means we’re going to be closing prisons. But,…
Read MoreClichés
At a press conference following a basketball game not long after President Bush died a reporter asked Coach Mike Krzyzewski how he’d come to know Bush and Krzyzewski explained that, years ago, after President George H. W. Bush’s 3-year-old daughter died of leukemia, Bush had set up a Cancer Foundation – and that’s how he…
Read MoreZig-Zagging
First, President Trump told Pelosi and Schumer that he’d be proud to take the blame for a shutdown; then, a day later, Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown; next, zigging, Trump said it was going to be a long shutdown; then, zagging, he said he didn’t want a long shutdown. At a glance President…
Read MoreRob Christensen Retires
With Rob Christensen’s retirement, we lose North Carolina’s most experienced, knowledgeable and insightful political reporter. There were, still are and always will be other great political reporters in North Carolina. But nobody stayed on the job for 45 years. Nobody had Rob’s wealth of history and sources. Nobody worked harder, worked sources harder, listened longer…
Read MoreHis Own Worst Enemy
After President Trump signed the new NAFTA agreement I thought, Trump got that one right – but then, before the ink dried, Trump erupted, twice, tweeting he hoped Michael Cohen would spend a long time in jail and that he and the President Xi of China were “the only two people who can bring about…
Read MoreWho’s Not Gullible?
Last July a Super PAC ran an ad telling voters George Holding wanted to deny insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. Three weeks later, when Holding’s campaign polled, only a few voters had believed the ad. It hadn’t worked. But Linda Coleman and Democratic Super PACs didn’t give up. They continued to hammer away…
Read MoreTwo Worlds
Two Worlds Before the election, two polls landed on my desk the same day. One was taken in a rural county. The other was taken in suburban Wake County (Raleigh). And reading them was like looking at two different worlds. One world was religious, traditional (not politically correct), and most voters had lived there all…
Read MoreThe Next Presidential Election
The Friday night before the election, walking to a table in a restaurant, I stopped to say hello to a lady I’ve known for years, and she asked, Well, tell me – what’s going to happen Tuesday? That was the question everyone was asking that week but, of course, there was no answer – so…
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