General
Trump explained
Millions of words have been expended the last month analyzing, over-analyzing and struggling to understand why the American people – or, at least, the Electoral College system – would make Donald Trump President. Democrats are frenziedly trying to figure out what happened and, as usual, find somebody or something to blame. As in: “Hillary was…
Read MoreGovernor Roy Cooper
After 16 years of mediocrity, North Carolina will get to see excellence again in the Executive Mansion. I know something about excellent Governors. I worked for Jim Hunt for four terms. Cooper reminds me of Governor Hunt. Not so much the young, ambitious Hunt I and II of 1976-1984. But the seasoned, focused and farsighted…
Read MoreCaesar’s Wife and Smelly
An ally of the Governor’s – The Civitas Institute – sued to stop the State Board of Elections counting 90,000 ballots cast by people who’d registered and voted on the same day; normally the State Justice Department would have defended the Board but, since those voters cast ballots in Attorney General Roy Cooper’s race against…
Read MoreAlas, Poor Pat
As his hopes and his days dwindle down to a precious few, you almost feel sorry for Pat McCrory. Almost. It has to be hard being the first North Carolina Governor to lose a reelection race. He couldn’t do what Jim Hunt, Jim Martin, Jim Hunt again and Mike Easley did. Bev Perdue was a…
Read MoreElections 2017?
This ball game may have just changed big-league, as Trump would say. The referees in federal court threw the penalty flag on the Republican legislature for unconstitutional gerrymandering. This means loss of down, possible loss of possession and maybe a replay in just 12 months. No doubt candidates and contributors, still exhausted from this year,…
Read MorePat and Roy
Pat laid his offer on the table Saturday: Recount Durham’s votes and I’ll drop my request for recounts in other counties, he told the State Board of Elections. It sounded reasonable. And fair. But like a lot of knotty problems there’s more than one way to look at it. The chance of a Durham recount…
Read MoreDining with D.G.
You can have your Anthony Bourdains and your Phil Rosenthals. If I’m eating on the road, I’m going with North Carolina’s own D.G. Martin. Now you can drive and dine with D.G. by picking up his new book, “North Carolina’s Roadside Eateries: A Traveler’s Guide to Local Restaurants, Diners, and Barbecue Joints,” published by UNC…
Read MoreFlunking the Electoral College
As Hillary Clinton’s popular vote lead passes 2 million, the quadrennial question arises: Why elect Presidents differently from the way we elect every other public official? And why not change it? The practical answer is that it’s impossible today to amend the Constitution. Half the country would automatically oppose it, given how divided we are.…
Read MoreDepressed – and deploring Trump
Happy Thanksgiving? Bah, humbug, say a lot of Democrats. Two weeks after a loss they didn’t see coming, they’re still sorting through four of the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining and depression. The fifth and final stage, acceptance, is a ways off. So let’s pause and calmly assess the situation. Here’s some advice…
Read MoreConnecting the Dots: Broken Journalism
After a year of waking up every morning to listen to name-calling and howling on TV I figured, Enough politics – after the election what everyone needed was a break to calm down. About a week later I read an article about the demise of journalism during the election, thought, Amen – then a couple…
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