Issues
The Great HB2 Train Wreck
“Is HB2 the worst self-inflicted wound in the history of North Carolina politics?” That’s what a young whippersnapper asked at breakfast the other day. (When you’re my age, you get a lot of questions about history.) I couldn’t think of a worse one. Terry Sanford’s food tax? It hurt him politically, but Sanford didn’t push…
Read MorePolice, protests and politics
Another police shooting of a black man. Another city ripped by unrest, protests and, the media says, “riots.” This time it’s Charlotte. This time Charlotte is in the news for something other than bathrooms. Carter’s blog on this, by the way, is thoughtful and insightful. I commend it to you. So often in cases like…
Read MoreRiots and Campaigns
Yesterday two reporters asked me if the riots in Charlotte were going to have a ‘political impact.’ On the radio, while driving to work, I’d heard about the riots but hadn’t read any news reports and didn’t know the answer—then last night at home I turned on the television and the second night of riots…
Read MoreCorrecting Mistakes
One poll question asked, Should transgender men be allowed to use women’s bathrooms? and another question asked, Do you support HB2? and the answer to both questions was ‘No’ which sounds like a contradiction but isn’t: It’s a paradox – a case of voters saying to Republicans, We agree with what you set out to…
Read MoreBlind Chance
The Washington Post recently published an article headlined: ‘Megalomaniac’ Trump vs ‘deceitful’ Clinton: How Virginia voters see the presidential race. The Post reported, according to a focus group of thirty undecided voters Donald Trump is “phony,” “crazy,” “arrogant,” “dumb,” “bigoted,” “self-centered,” and a “charlatan.” Hillary, the voters said, is “old,” “deceitful,” “a liar” and “slimy.”…
Read MoreThe Dealmaker
He’ll be the first to say he’s a Master Dealmaker. And looking at the money he’s made there’s not much doubt he’s correct. But will a gift for dealmaking lead Donald Trump to the White House? When making a deal to buy or sell real estate, no doubt Donald Trump asked the fellow sitting across…
Read MoreThe Question on the Horizon
Trump squints. Shakes his head. Raises his hand and gestures, pointing his index finger upwards into the air. The crowd roars and he says, ‘I love you Arizona.’ In the Primary Donald Trump pledged to deport every illegal immigrant but then, in the General Election, he back-stepped, calling it a ‘softening.’ If tomorrow Hillary…
Read MoreShifting Sands
We’re in the throes of the most rip-tide tormented, sands shifting beneath our feet election anyone’s seen since who knows when; four years ago during the Presidential Election when the pollster came to town he said, The key undecided voter this election is a 45 year old woman with two children who lives in the…
Read MoreBigotry is losing big
Donald Trump has figured out, or been convinced, that Americans don’t want a bigot in high public office. Petulant Pat McCrory hasn’t learned that lesson yet in his reelection race. Trump’s “pivot” (actually more of a lurch) on race and immigration was an act of desperation. His new campaign team obviously told him he couldn’t…
Read MoreRockefeller Republicans
Fifty years ago Barry Goldwater defeated the Republican Establishment to become the Republican nominee then ran head-on into Lyndon Johnson – but Goldwater’s defeat wasn’t the end of the story; in the fullness of time the ‘true believers’ who elected Goldwater found a Knight on a White Horse and in 1980 Ronald Reagan won then…
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