General
Zig-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…
Read MoreCrazy in the Opposite Direction
Yesterday I described how, when President Trump goes on a tear, Democratic activists go a little crazy and morph into mirror images of Trump only on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Just before the election Trump tweeted, I’m a nationalist, ok? I’m a nationalist. Then at a White House press conference a PBS…
Read MoreAn Unexpected Gift
We knew George Holding’s race for Congress would be close a year ago and, three months ago, George actually trailed in the polls by three points – then a month before the election the unexpected struck. When an election’s over it’s human nature for people to say, I did this, or, I did that –…
Read MoreDaylight Dog Time
Regardless of their owners’ politics, dogs overwhelmingly agree that the time change is a bad thing. Our dog Ringo is strongly opposed. Every year we go through this. Yesterday afternoon it started at 4 o’clock. Ringo (lip quivering and tail wagging): “Time to eat!” Me: “Not yet. You have to wait an hour.” Ringo: “What?…
Read MoreI love October now
I hated October when I worked in campaigns. It was the worst month. You were already dead tired when October got here. Then things got worse. Busier, crazier and more stressful. Ask anybody in a campaign how they’re doing in October, and they all say: “I’ll just be glad when it’s over.” You count down…
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