Issues
Aging Powers
A couple of years before the Berlin Wall fell a writer, gazing into his crystal ball, predicted communism was done for because ‘even the people who believed in it didn’t believe in it anymore’ – then, by way of explanation, he added that a dead ideology lives on awhile in a semi-comatose state but, after…
Read MoreA Moment of Clairvoyance
It was one of those rare moments when a candidate’s lips moved and, in the next breath, clairvoyance dawned. The moderator at the New Hampshire debate looked across the stage at Marco Rubio and told him that Chris Christie had said he “wasn’t ready to be President.” Rubio gave Christie the back of his hand,…
Read MoreTed Cruz’s Bad Moment
Marco Rubio’s bad moment got the most attention at the New Hampshire debate but there was another moment we may see again. When Ted Cruz was asked why his campaign had told Ben Carson’s supporters in Iowa that Carson was dropping out of the race, Cruz looked into the camera and explained how he respected…
Read MoreAnother Band-Aid
At first the President figured he could whip ISIS without putting a single foot soldier on the ground in Iraq. It didn’t work. Then he figured he could whip ISIS with 300 foot soldiers he called advisors. That didn’t work either. So last week, without fanfare, the Secretary of Defense announced he was sending 1,800…
Read MoreA Devilish Mess
Sometimes it’s the little things that trip a fellow up. Last year, Governor McCrory called a routine meeting so two of his supporters could sit down with state officials to discuss their contract with the Department of Prisons. But then right in the middle of the meeting one of the Governor’s supporters, Graeme Keith, Sr.,…
Read MoreA Ray of Hope
For years I’ve thought of the people who vote in Republican Primaries as the salt of the earth – as old-fashioned, common sense patriots who might get bamboozled by a politician now and then but who in the end, blessed with a kind of inerrant compass, spot the varmints. But when this year’s Republican Primaries…
Read MoreKhomeini Smiling
Back in 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini took over our embassy in Tehran we “froze” $400 million in Iranian cash. The cash sat there, frozen, until last week when two things happened: Iran released four American hostages. And the President announced we were giving Iran back the $400 million plus $1.3 billion in interest. The Republicans…
Read MoreTempting Trump
The Washington Republicans, trapped between a rock and a hard place, asked themselves, Who can we make the best deal with –Trump or Cruz? And that was all it took. The ole Master Dealmaker couldn’t resist. Flinging all his anti-Washington rhetoric out the window he got up at a rally in Las Vegas and announced,…
Read MoreThe Great Debate
Last night at the Republican debate all seven candidates might have taken aim at Donald Trump and blasted away and Trump’s decision not to attend might have backfired. Instead, they stood up there in a row sounding (expect, perhaps, Chris Christie) like seven Washington politicians – attacking each other. And handed Trump a gift.
Read MoreGlows in the Dark
Governor McCrory’s Secretary of the Environment doesn’t particularly care for solar energy so he’s set out to scuttle it by declaring nuclear energy is clean energy, just like solar. Think about that. It’s odd. The Chief Environmental Officer for all of North Carolina thinks nuclear waste, which has to be buried under a mountain in…
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