Issues
Who’s Corrupt
An alert reader spotted this “Income Opportunities Available” banner on the WakeUp America TV ads about “corrupt Democrats.” The reader followed the link to: http://www.wakeupamerica.com/income-opportunities. There he read: If you are interested in becoming a Team Leader, and building a team of commission fundraisers to help air Wake Up America TV…
Read MoreElection Outlier?
In 1993, Tom Fetzer’s election as mayor of Raleigh proved to be a portent of a national Republican tide the next year. Tomorrow’s Wake school board races could be the same for 2010. I haven’t seen any polling. But I have a bad feeling that the bad guys – the anti-diversity crowd – will win.…
Read MoreRadical Socialists?
I got worried when I saw the “corrupt Democrats” ad sponsored by the North Carolina conservative group Wake Up America. But I felt better once the ad ended. The ad’s beginning goes right at a real Democratic vulnerability in North Carolina: the combination of corruption and higher taxes. “Are state Democrats the most…
Read MoreThe Raleigh City Election
First time candidate for City Council Champ Claris has spoken the tabooed words ‘Don’t build it downtown.’ Since Charles Meeker was elected Mayor (which seems like it was not long after General Sherman marched through Raleigh) Meeker’s been trying to turn downtown into the southern equivalent of the ‘Great White Way.’ It’s a mystery…
Read MoreObama’s Olympic Event
Republicans and the media are up in arms because President Obama will go overseas to lobby for the Olympics in Chicago in 2016. A waste of time, they sniff, when the nation faces so many important issues. Once again, Obama is a step ahead of his critics. His trip would be one…
Read MoreTax-Hike Survival
Earlier this week I wrote that Governor Perdue should consider championing tax reform. To her advisers, that lifeline probably looks more like an anchor. But history suggests otherwise. Mike Easley raised taxes – and survived. At least, survived raising taxes. Jim Hunt raised the gas tax in 1981. Jesse Helms &…
Read MoreHail Mary for Bev
A few weeks ago, I thought Governor Perdue’s best strategy was a Dick Morris/Clinton-like series of small, popular initiatives. She’s been doing that lately, though I’m sure it wasn’t at my suggestion. She has rolled out a series of announcements on new industries, rural health care, nanotechnology and offshore energy. But offshore energy…
Read MoreMediScare
Life and politics are full of irony. Like health-care reform. One of the great obstacles to a “public option” is the fear of “government-run health care.” One voter group most worried about reform are seniors. Specifically, they worry that reform will jeopardize Medicare. That is, they fear that government-run health care will…
Read MoreObama’s Polls
The media frenzy over the last month or so has been that Americans don’t support – or understand – President Obama’s health-care reforms. Bad news for Barack, the media and the pundits proclaim. In Washington this week, a local executive told me, she heard one of the media Big Feet pontificating about how…
Read MoreWhere do you Stand Beverly?
If anyone’s wondering why Governor Perdue’s popularity is languishing at political rock bottom the answer may be zigging and zagging. Governor Perdue was for budget cuts, then she was against budget cuts. She told the legislature to raise taxes, any taxes, it didn’t matter to her which; then she blasted legislators for raising the…
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