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With Governor Perdue’s announcement that she will not seek reelection the North Carolina political landscape has shuffled quickly. As of today, candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor (with Walter Dalton’s entry into the Governor’s race) have 107 days to raise money, reach voters, and win a statewide primary. This compressed schedule is unprecedented in North…

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Follow the Logic

Explaining that his chances of winning reelection look dim, this morning Democratic Congressman Brad Miller announced he will not run.   About an hour later Governor Beverly Perdue explained that, because the one thing she cares most about is schoolchildren (who, she added, are victims of Republican legislators cutting spending), she’s not running either.  …

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Media Locked

Gary is taking a break this week from consulting, blogging and politics. He invited several TAPsters to contribute blogs during his hiatus. Here’s one of them: Art Pope likely has never thought of himself as allied with the oft-bashed-as-liberal news media, but the mainstream media has succeeded in giving undeserved credibility to Pope’s squadron of…

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PR 101

Gary is taking a break this week from consulting, blogging and politics. He invited several TAPsters to contribute blogs during his hiatus. Here’s one of them: Mitt Romney’s reluctance to turnover his tax returns proves yet again how important it is to FALL FORWARD FAST in politics.  What started out as a refusal by Romney…

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What’s Wrong with this Picture?

Someone ought to say a kind word about Ron Paul – after all, he may be the last of an almost extinct species in American public life: An honest politician.   A politician who doesn’t spin at all.   Ask Newt about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and he’ll tell you they paid him for…

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Lobbyists Rankings – A Sham?

Gary is taking a break this week from consulting, blogging and politics. He invited several TAPsters to contribute blogs during his hiatus. Here’s one of them:   One of the most distasteful and useless public policy efforts in North Carolina is underway,  and hardly anyone knows it.   The NC Center for Public Policy Research…

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Network

Does it seem the Republican debates have become a lot like a ‘reality show?’   Herman Cain gets voted off the island.   The bachelorette says no to Rick Perry.   Michelle Bachman gets voted off Dancing with the Stars?   And – in the season finale – we’ll know America’s New Idol.   Up…

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That’s Entertainment…

Ole’ Mitt Romney’s hit a rough patch – a week ago he was the conqueror of Iowa and New Hampshire and rolling to victory in South Carolina then his victory in Iowa vanished in front of his eyes and Newt shot past him in South Carolina.   The Republican Establishment’s a peculiar beast: Armed with…

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Politics South of the Border

It was reputedly Robert E. Lee who said, “the problem with South Carolina is that it’s too small to be its own nation, but too large to be an insane asylum.” General Lee should have lived to see this year’s Republican primary.   Stephen Colbert’s candidacy officially makes the race the best comedy show on…

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Mitticisms

Mitt Romney has a worse case of Rich Foot in Mouth disease than George H.W. Bush and John Kerry combined. A few favorites:   “I like being able to fire people.”   “I had to worry about a pink slip.”   (Of his $374,000-plus in speaking fees): “It wasn’t very much money.”   (Of the…

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