Issues
Easley’s Farewell Gift
Down to his last four months in the governor’s mansion and looking ahead at his future beyond politics, Mike Easley has given his wife a five-year contract to work at North Carolina State University for $170,000 a year. Democrats are giving Sarah Palin the devil for trying to fire one Alaska state trooper – but…
Read MoreOne Paper Indivisible?
Two stories in today’s N&O point to where things are headed. A front-page story by Mark Johnson. Previously, he and other Charlotte Observer staffers were identified as “Charlotte Observer.” Today, he was identified as “staff writer.” The Business section said the McClatchy chain, which owns the N&O and Observer, will begin layoffs Monday. Already, Johnson…
Read MoreAnchors Weighed
Candidates aren’t the only ones whose debate and interview performances are being scrutinized. So are TV anchors, reporters and commentators. Was Charles Gibson condescending in his questioning of Sarah Palin? Does anybody know what he meant when he asked if Iran was an “existential” threat to Israel? What does Sartre have to do with the…
Read MoreClarifying One Thing
This morning in the newspaper John McCain ripped into Barack Obama, saying Obama supported “legislation ensuring ‘comprehensive sex education’ for kindergartners.” Sounds like Obama passed a bill to give kindergartners a manual on how to have safe sex, but, in fact, the kind of sex education Obama was proposing – in that bill – was…
Read MorePerdue in Peril?
It’s a sure sign of an anxious campaign when the manager releases internal polls. That’s what Zach Ambrose had to do this week for Bev Perdue after a WTVD poll showed her trailing. That came on the heels of the Carville-Greenberg poll. Perdue’s campaign released a memo from Garin-Hart-Yang, the campaign’s pollsters, showing Perdue ahead…
Read MoreThe Stealth Candidate
What happens if a candidate turns out to be so bad at being a candidate his campaign doesn’t dare let him loose on the public – say, because every time he opens his mouth the campaign totters on the brink of destruction? The solution: A Stealth Candidate. It’s an old tried and true formula. Sixteen…
Read MoreAttack Palin
The Obama campaign has to attack Sarah Palin. She has turned the race around for McCain. Democrats must turn her into a negative for him. They may be reluctant to attack a woman. But the DSCC got over that with Liddy Dole. One poll shows that white women went from being slightly for Obama before…
Read MoreStarting Worse and Going Downhill
I watched the first thirty minutes of the Perdue vs. McCrory debate. The “Thriller from Manila” it was not. About the time I was ready to doze off, McCrory, self-righteously praising himself, said, ‘I have never run a negative ad.’ That woke me up. I hate it when a candidate does that. Doesn’t McCrory believe…
Read MoreWhat Perdue and McCrory Have to Do
Tonight’s debate is a chance for Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory to step out of the shadows of the national party conventions and the U.S. Senate race. Time to fill in the picture of themselves – and their opponent. Their race is close, maybe even tied. They have eight weeks. Here are three things each…
Read MoreAn Otherworldly Debut
Watching Sarah Palin’s speech, I could not help but think two things.First, I thought I was watching the rise of a great future star of the Republican Party. She handled herself well, and had a real fire and energy that the ticket previously lacked. Regardless of the outcome of the election, this is someone who…
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