General
Missing Rand?
Democrats are worried about losing the State Senate this year – especially without Tony Rand to run their caucus campaigns. After Democrats came within one seat of losing the Senate in 1994, Rand and Marc Basnight build a high-performance operation. They hired good people, did good polling and spent money based on cold-eyed calculations…
Read MoreOily Burr
According to a recent N&O headline, “Burr says oil ads won’t ruffle feathers.” Senator Burr has to say that. I doubt he believes it. Two years ago, Elizabeth Dole’s campaign didn’t worry about independent ads attacking her. That’s why she’s former Senator Dole today. The latest ad attacking Burr – showing an…
Read MoreRepublican Hunt
John Davis, late of NCFREE has an interesting take (one I like, obviously) on Jim Hunt in his recent report. Davis says the Republican Party in North Carolina has failed to produce a political leader as skilled as Hunt. He identifies Hunt’s key strengths as pragmatism and persuasiveness. Davis recounts his meeting with…
Read MoreRules of the Road
Governor Perdue’s Highway Patrol news conference was better than it read. You can watch the whole thing here. But she better hope her tough talk solves the Patrol’s problems. Because it obviously didn’t solve her media – and political – problems. It’s never good when the Page 1 photos are of you, hands…
Read MoreWhen Reporters Are the News
It’s Reporter Versus Reporter. UNC-TV versus UNC Radio. And the best drama of the legislative session. Senator Fletcher Hartsell’s inspired idea to subpoena UNC-TV’s unaired Alcoa story stirred up great mischief. It: Put Alcoa in an unwelcome spotlight Put UNC-TV in an unwelcome spotlight Put a UNC radio reporter at odds with a UNC-TV.…
Read MoreCalling UNC-TV to the Stand
I heard that Jim Goodmon of WRAL was so incensed by the legislative subpoena of WUNC-TV that he called Erskine Bowles – and urged him to fight it. Of course, given the just-completed state budget, UNC was in no position to defy the legislature. Both UNC-TV and the First Amendment probably will survive.…
Read MoreSinking the Megaport
The proposed international port at Southport is headed for Davy Jones Locker. The money was cut from the budget, and Congressman Mike McIntyre came out in opposition. A wise reader – and veteran Raleigh hand – believes there a lesson here: how to royally screw up a public-policy initiative. His take: …
Read MoreCleanup Crew
President Obama rolled out his best 2010 message yesterday at a town hall in Wisconsin. Click here to see one clip that captures it. The message is simple: The Republicans gave us a mess, and they refuse to help clean it up. Maybe Obama’s team has learned a lesson: They haven’t played the…
Read More15,833
Back in 2003 two enterprising ladies from the mountains (from the Hamlet of Sparta) went into the business of providing care to Medicaid patients. Seven years later a judge in the mountains put them out of business and sent them to jail for four years – because the two ladies had hoo-dooed Secretary Lanier Cansler’s…
Read MoreItalians and Suburbanites
These days we old-fashioned southerners in Raleigh are getting an education about Italians as the war between the Tedescos and Margiottas (who’ve taken over the School Board) and our local ‘Progressives’ (who’re livid at the Italians for ending busing) roars along. About the only person in town sounding reasonable these days is the News…
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