Issues
What Do Voters Think?
Have I missed it? Or has somebody done – and released – a poll of Wake County voters on the school debate? Most people I run into take it as a matter of faith that the board’s new direction reflects a minority opinion in the county. True, it was the election for just…
Read MoreFailure of Leadership
There are two kinds of political leaders: uniters and dividers. Barack Obama is a uniter; Sarah Palin, a divider. Jim Hunt was a uniter; Jesse Helms, a divider. Ronald Reagan was a uniter; George W. Bush, a divider. Dividers can succeed in politics. But they don’t leave lasting legacies of accomplishment. The…
Read MoreMarshall and Agents
There’s an old joke that the most dangerous place to be in an election year is between a politician and a TV camera. This year, the most dangerous place may be in any group regulated by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. Her Senate campaign got big headlines today by promising to investigate sports…
Read MoreThe Gang of Eight
Laura Leslie of North Carolina Public Radio-WUNC is a great reporter and one of my favorite bloggers. She recently had a post about the capital media that is worth attention. Since 2004, she wrote, the legislative press corps’ ranks have dropped from 20-something to, at the end of this year’s session, eight. That brought…
Read MoreTeens With a Cause
Forty years ago, I took part in an antiwar protest at the State Capitol after KentState. Yesterday, my 17-year-old daughter took part in the Wake schools protest at the Capitol. So I’ve been amused by Carter’s blogs about teenagers being “used” by adults angry at the new school board’s assignment policy. My experience…
Read MoreStooping Low
Everyday the bru-ha-ha between our local Progressives and the Italian transplants on the School Board gets more entertaining – the whole thing’s turned into a microcosm of modern life with far-left Liberals, Democrats, Progressives, Italians, Southerners, far-right Republicans, NAACP Reverends, a Duke Professor and a liberal Baptist Church all going at one another tooth and…
Read MoreWho Can You Trust?
It’s a bad time for once-trusted institutions. Highway Patrol: Yes, the vast majority of the line troopers are courageous and honorable. That’s why they – and the public – and mad at the people at the top. UNC-TV: Pulled off a rare two-fer by looking both unprofessional AND spineless. It’s bad when your…
Read MoreSurprise and Wonder
Politicians, like most people, are creatures of habit plodding along each day going through the same routines day in and day out – then just when you figure there are no surprises left in human nature (or, at least, in politicians) somewhere deep in subterranean caverns tides shift and suddenly you find yourself staring open-mouthed…
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.…
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