Issues
Clutter
There’re two things about political ads a normal ‘Joe’ sitting at home watching TV could tell you that a lot of campaigns haven’t figured out – here’s an example: Americans for Prosperity just launched a new tv ad attacking Roy Cooper and like a lot of political ads it begins with a shadowy black and…
Read MoreRigged Elections
Donald Trump’s hammered away saying the election’s ‘rigged’ and 24 million people are registered improperly including 1.8 million dead people;— the first time I ever laid eyes on a list of registered voters back in 1976 it was filled with dead people and people who didn’t live at the address where they’d registered to vote.…
Read MoreThe Last Great Debate
The ‘Last Great Debate’ starts in a few hours. In a nutshell a political debate like this one boils down to a simple fact: It’s a confrontation between two people – who’re facing each other across a stage – who each want to prove he or she will be a better President or Governor or…
Read MoreRyan’s Gambit
It was like watching a fire start – an errant spark lands in the trashcan, the paper ignites, the rug smolders, the flames lick up the wall, the fire spreads throughout the house. Monday the Wall Street Journal published a poll showing Hillary rolling to an 11-point lead and showing Democrats ahead by 7 points…
Read MoreA Rock and a Hard Place
Joe Klein published the best report on the Second Presidential Debate. There’s not much to add. Hillary was Hillary. No surprises there. More than a few folks thought Trump might disintegrate but he didn’t – so, as they say in politics, he ‘exceeded expectations.’ The result wasn’t exactly a resounding victory for Trump but he…
Read MoreNo high ground for McCrory
Pat McCrory’s reelection problems go much deeper and much farther back than HB2. Any lift he gets from putting on his hurricane hat isn’t likely to lift him out of the floodwaters. That’s the assessment Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling gave at a Common Cause NC fundraiser Sunday evening. Jensen offered a view of…
Read MoreMurder in Paleolithic Times
If you attach the words ‘science proves this’ to a statement most people, almost as a reflex, will believe it. Often without a second thought. The other day the newspapers reported a scientist at Granada University in Spain had published a study on the ‘evolutionary history of lethal violence.’ The scientist had carefully created a…
Read MoreOver a Barrel
Somehow the New York Times laid its hands on Donald Trump’s tax returns from 1995, which showed Trump had claimed $916 million in losses – losses so large, according to the Times, Donald Trump may not have paid a penny of federal income taxes for 18 years. It would be hard to find a newspaper…
Read MorePhil Berger and the Professors
It’s hard to find a more bull-headed fellow walking the earth than a UNC professor dead-set on upholding the virtues of political correctness: He’s 100% for diversity and 100% against discrimination right up to the moment someone disagrees with him. The other day the UNC Faculty Council gave the legislature and Senator Phil Berger down…
Read MoreAll That Mattered
A Washington Post reporter asked whether Republican legislators passed election laws to require voter I.D.s and limit early voting to keep African Americans from voting. Back in 2010, before Republicans redrew the State House and Senate districts, there were 98 Democrats in the State Legislature. After redistricting, there were 60. Before redistricting, 33 African-Americans…
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