Issues
‘09 Legislature, ‘10 Elections
For this year’s legislature, one thing looms larger than the budget crisis: Next year’s elections. That’s because the legislators elected in 2010 will draw up election districts for the next decade. So don’t expect anything too bold or radical from this session. The only tax increases on the table are the “sin taxes” floated by…
Read MoreProfessor Steinmetz and the Common Good
Professor David Steinmetz of Duke Divinity School says it is a very good idea that President Obama invited both a minister in favor of gay marriage and a minister opposed to it to pray during his inauguration – the way he sees it Obama is helping heal the nation’s wounds, end divisions, and most of…
Read MoreObama and the Terrorists
Last week President Obama’s ‘favorable’ rating was an eye-popping 70% and after the last week of canonization it may now be 90% and rising. But there are shoals in the waters. Tuesday, during his inaugural, the president proclaimed, “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,”…
Read MoreHagan’s Labor Pains
When John Edwards was running for Senate in 1998, the N&O did a story about how little money he had raised from the state’s business community – and how much then-Senator Lauch Faircloth had raised there. Sam Hunt, ex-DOT Secretary to Governor Hunt, was quoted as saying the road to the Senate ran through the…
Read MoreThe Sorcerer’s Apprentice
At first glance it looks like Barack Obama’s sitting on top of the world, but this poor fellow’s actually sitting on a dozen time bombs. Running the American Empire these days is first cousin to being assigned hazardous duty in the bomb squad. The war we were winning, Afghanistan, is going downhill – so the…
Read MoreGovernor Perdue: It’s Not a Handout
Her fourth day in office Madame Governor trooped up to Washington, held out her hand, and asked Congress to give her $18 billion – plus, another billion or so she needs to balance the state budget. She sat down with North Carolina’s Congressional Delegation, then with Obama’s transition team, handed them a list of things…
Read MoreThe Shortest Honeymoon on Record
Last fall, after Obama got elected, Richard the Intellectual got so discouraged about politics he took to reading religious poetry – The Divine Comedy about cured him of that but, then, he switched to the Civil War and when he got to the Battle of Antietam the gloom thickened. The way Richard tells it the…
Read MoreThe Republicans in Raleigh
Monday Madame Governor signed a spate of executive orders and it’s time for the Republicans in the House and Senate to strap on their shields and bucklers and have at it. They’re supposed to be the loyal opposition and this session they would be wise to take the job seriously. For instance, not long ago,…
Read MoreThe Governor Who Couldn’t Shoot Straight
It was hard, personally, not to like Mike Easley – at times Easley showed a lack of pretension rare in governors which, by most reports, made him immanently likeable. But he also showed a void of interest when it came to the workings of his own government that the word ‘detached’ doesn’t begin to cover.…
Read MoreB for Bev
Given the criticism of her campaign performances, Bev Perdue gave a surprisingly good inaugural speech. As a connoisseur of inaugural speeches â and the co-author of several â I give her a B. She largely avoided the common mistake of âvision strain:â trying too hard to sound lofty. Her speech was clear, short and simple.…
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