Issues
The Last Word on Iraq
Just after we invaded Iraq ten years ago, having lunch with a businessman, I said, Well, they say we have to do it to stop terrorism but I wonder if it’s not about oil too. He laid down his fork. Looked up. Don’t kid yourself. It’s all about oil. Well, I thought, getting…
Read MoreHow Did We Come to This?
There’re some strange doings going on over in the General Assembly. For decades, free markets have been an article of faith with Republicans. We don’t like government manipulating markets to pick ‘winners and losers.’ But when Tesla Motors sold eighty fancy electric cars over the Internet in North Carolina, the Automobile Dealers Association…
Read MoreSqueal Like a Pig
Thirty-four years ago, in 1979, I tagged along on Governor Jim Hunt’s trade mission to China – the first for a North Carolina governor. The goal: get the Chinese to buy more North Carolina products, like pork. Now, we’re selling them more than pork; we’re selling them Smithfield Foods. “We’ve gone whole-hog,” Ferrel Guillory…
Read MoreIt’s the Education, Stupid
In today’s superheated politics, a bit of understatement can be a powerful thing. Exaggeration and overstatement get you headlines, but they don’t necessarily win the hearts and minds of swing voters. Democrats might remember that as they rail at the Republican-run state government. Crying wolf at every outrage – and there’s a new one every…
Read MoreA Surprise
Who’d have thought it was possible – the Internet sweepstakes poker parlor folks have offered ‘to put $500 million’ in the state treasury – if the legislators will just see the light and let them stay in business. Whoever heard of anybody volunteering to pay half a billion dollars in taxes? You have to…
Read MoreIn All of America…
Up in Washington, Senate Leader Harry Reid and House Leader John Boehner and a handful of politicians have been sequestered in secret meetings, trying to agree on a solution to one of Washington’s most burning problems: How to exempt Congressmen and their staffs from ObamaCare. Then, to their surprise, word of the meetings leaked…
Read MoreWorrying About Primaries
A legislator looked at a bill, winched, looked at another legislator and said, ‘Well, if I don’t vote for it I guess I’ll land in a primary.’ ‘You think,’ the second legislator said, ‘that Republicans in your district are for people carrying guns in bars?’ The bill allowed people carry guns in bars, restaurants…
Read MorePower of the Saving Perception?
Last week Gary thoughtfully wrote a squib (below) urging people to visit young Thomas Mills’ new website PoliticsNC – so I did. And got a surprise. Young Mr. Mills was – genially – taking me to task for writing how the Democrats passing voter laws (over the years) to elect Democrats, had led to Republicans…
Read MoreMurdering Santa Claus
For years Jesse Helms wrote every speech he made, typing each on an old reporter’s typewriter, then one year when he was unusually harried he decided it was time to hire a speechwriter – so we hired ‘John.’ John was an unusually gifted writer but for all his virtues he had a peculiar view…
Read MoreWanted: New Ideas
Today I yield my time and space to Nation Hahn, my social-media guru and guide to all things New Politics. He’s one of the state’s bright talents and one of my prime hopes for the future. He offers a timely and telling warning to Democrats: “Gary called for a Democratic Moses recently. It…
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