Issues
Republicans Embrace Clinton and Bowles
Forget the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Forget the attacks on Erskine Bowles when he ran for Senate. Republicans now desperately embrace Bubba and Bowles. Why? Because they can’t find a respected Republican to cite. Certainly not George W. Bush, who blew up the Clinton-Bowles balanced budget and gave us this recession. Instead, they…
Read MoreRyan’s Express
Soon the media will stop hyperventilating about Paul Ryan and get back to Obama vs. Romney. It always happens, unless the VP choice is a disaster. Remember: Sarah Palin’s selection put the Republicans ahead four years ago, until…well, you know. For now, we sophisticated analysts ask: “What does the pick say” about the presidential…
Read MoreToo Much Government
The headline on John Dresher’s ‘tweet’ (“Wake Forest Baptist cited for violating federal regulations after monkey’s escape”) was more temptation than I could resist – I clicked on the link to the story imagining a ‘foot washing’ Baptist with a monkey and what the monkey could have done that landed him in trouble but, it…
Read MoreAn Odd Fact
Whenever the question of how to improve education in North Carolina comes up the Democrats are a paragon of consistency: The solution, they say, is to spend more money. Now, right or wrong, the Democrats are dead serious and whenever Republicans (who have a different idea about solutions to problems) don’t spend more on…
Read MoreA Hard Fight
It started four years ago as an uneven fight: Five rural County Commissioners against a multi-national conglomerate with plants from Iceland to Arabia – so, losing ground, the Commissioners who’re Republicans turned to the Democratic Governor for help and got it in an odd way: The Governor helped but, at the same time, her Department…
Read MoreThe Big Dog Speaks
Hereâs why Iâm glad Bill Clinton will have a big role at the Democratic convention: Nobody in American politics today is a better contrast to how brain-dead American politics is today. Clinton is the one national figure who can weave sensible policy proposals from the extremes of left and right, the one politician who…
Read MoreJust Plain Bad Manners
WRAL-TV put an Internet link on its website to a map that shows streets where concealed handgun permit holders live – the map doesn’t give the handgun permit holders’ names or addresses it simply reports, say, ‘two’ permit holders live on Maple Avenue. That didn’t sit well with the pro-gun lobby Grass Roots North…
Read MoreRinging the School Bell
One of Walter Dalton’s biggest challenges is winning Independent women voters in the Charlotte media market. How does he do that? Take them to school. Dalton can go after on education Pat McCrory two ways. One, McCrory will rubber-stamp whatever the legislature does to the public schools. Senator Josh Stein did a…
Read MoreDigging the Hole Deeper
The State Medicaid Department has a Public Integrity Section to root out fraud which sounds fine only according to the State Auditor the department paid IBM and SAS $8 million to help find fraud but then only recovered $427,000 – so, at the end of the day, instead of fighting fraud the department compounded fraud…
Read MoreUnintended Consequences
Republicans in the state legislature cut Planned Parenthood’s state funding by $125,000 but, to give the devil its due, in the blink of an eye Planned Parenthood turned a cut into a three-fold blessing by persuading the Obama Administration to give it $426,000 – as one Republican legislator said, I guess we can thank our…
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