General
Radio therapy
The day after the election, I taped an interview with Chris Fitzsimon on the NC Policy Watch website. I talked about what happened and what comes next, including Roy Cooper vs the legislature, potential splits inside the Republican Party and why Deborah Ross should run against Thom Tillis in 2020. You can hear it here.…
Read MoreTherapy for Democrats
My Facebook page looks like a mass therapy session for Democrats cycling through the various stages of grief. They not only vent their anger at Trump and his angry voters, they also lash out at other Democrats and lecture them on how they should feel and what they should do. No. You should feel how…
Read MoreA Republican coup d’état?
Is it possible that Pat McCrory and Republican legislative leaders are so arrogant, corrupt, crooked and power-crazed that they would try to overrule the people’s decision for Governor? Gerrymandering was one thing. Voter-suppression was another. Setting aside the clear outcome of the election, without even a fig leaf of legitimacy, to keep McCrory in office…
Read MoreAll Shook Up
Donald Trump’s victory was the most stunning, shocking, earth-shaking, landscape-shattering election upset in American history. Nobody looked more surprised than Trump. And more than a few of his voters no doubt woke up the day after and said, “Hold on. I didn’t think he’d win.” After something so jarring, it’s human nature to minimize, rationalize…
Read MoreHope?
The American people wanted change in the worst kind of way. And they got it. There are only two messages in politics: (1) “Time for a change.” Or (2) “Stay the course.” Hillary Clinton was a status quo candidate in a change year. Trump was change. And people were willing to blow up Washington to…
Read MoreHope
Well, it’s Election Day and we haven’t covered ourselves with glory – Hillary sounded like the meanest mother-in-law on earth yesterday and if Donald Trump ever so much as looks sideways at another blonde he ought to be committed to Bedlam. If politics is the measurement of our nation’s virtue – we’re up the creek:…
Read MoreEasier to Win
Most candidates view asking people to give money to their campaigns like having a tooth pulled; over twenty years, Jesse Helms never picked up the telephone, dialed a number, and asked for a contribution. Once, during a meeting, after Jesse finished answering questions his chief fundraiser asked the group of businessmen to contribute. After a…
Read MoreTwo Signs
A threat shadowing Republican candidates has been the fear that Republicans who dislike Donald Trump (and also can’t abide Hillary) won’t vote; if these ‘Ambivalent to Trump’ Republicans worried and fretted then stayed home on Election Day it looked like it could cost every Republican from Pat McCrory to a local School Board candidate votes…
Read MoreRock Bottom but Not Boring
Women were coming out of the woodwork for weeks pointing fingers at Donald Trump and Trump’s been saying if you really want to vote against a man who grabs and kisses women you ought to vote against Hillary because of Bill. We’ve had more sex on our hands than needed but finally it died down.…
Read MoreNail-biter
In both of the last two Presidential elections, North Carolina was one of the two closest states. Here we go again. The Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll shows Clinton up 2 here, Ross and Burr tied and Cooper up 3. The final New York Times Upshot/Siena College poll for North Carolina showed Clinton and Trump…
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