National Democrats
Convention Wisdom
The mainstream media is obsessed about potential problems with the Democratic convention in Charlotte. Will labor and liberals protest and boycott? Will Charlotte and the party raise enough money? Was it a good choice in light of Democrats’ problems in North Carolina? Etc., etc. Get real. Nobody is going to cast their vote…
Read MorePartisanship
North Carolina’s most famous Democrat, Jim Hunt, ran for statewide office six times and each time gave the liberal Democrat running for President a wide berth – and so did Mike Easley when he ran in 2000 (Al Gore) and 2004 (John Kerry). And no one thought much of it. But now two Democratic…
Read MoreLeBron Obama
President Obama is the LeBron James of politics. No one else in the game inspires the same passions – pro and con. No one else has the same political skills. No one else can put as many points on the board – for both sides. For all the talk about Mitt Romney –…
Read MoreWillie Bain Horton
Summertime is historically when presidential candidates get defined in a way that cripples them in the fall. It happened to Michael Dukakis in 1988. After he locked up the nomination, he went back to Boston, rolled up his sleeves and work to work – on being governor. Meanwhile, Lee Atwater rolled up his…
Read MoreHow Washington Sets Policy
How Washington went about setting health care policy is for more erudite minds than mine but here goes: Tom, Dick and Harry rolled into the ER in ambulances and each was having a heart attack – Tom’s so poor he couldn’t afford to buy health insurance, Dick could almost afford it but not quite,…
Read MoreMove On
Will Republicans now make the same mistake on health care reform that President Obama made? Apart from never adequately explaining his reform, the President hurt himself by focusing on health care when Americans were focused on the bad economy. Now a poll shows that, however they feel about the law, Americans want to…
Read MoreWhose Economy?
Speaker Thom Tillis says Republicans “own the economy” and is optimistic: “I think we are seeing some green shoots.” But Pat McCrory says Governor Perdue owns the economy and it’s “broken.” Nationally, of course, Republicans say President Obama owns the economy and it sucks. Obama avoids sounding too optimistic. Democrats say it’s…
Read MoreSimple Politics
When you boil out all the hollering and gnashing of teeth the Presidential campaign’s pretty simple. Romney says, Obama’s sunk the economy. He doesn’t deserve re-election. Then Obama says, Look at Romney’s record as Governor of Massachusetts. No matter how bad I’ve done – he’d do worse. Then Obama adds, And look at what Romney…
Read MorePicking Winners and Losers?
One of the problems no one’s ever been able to solve as far as politics goes is how to stop one group of folks from using the government to get their hands on another group of folks’ money. For instance, back when President Obama gave green-energy-company-gone-bankrupt-Solyndra government subsidies, Republicans cried foul and said what…
Read MoreA Win Is a Win
President Obama finally got a Republican vote for his health care bill: Chief Justice Roberts’. Of course, Republicans are trying now to turn it into a “tax,” with Roberts’ help. But it’s a huge win for Obama. And what’s the best thing about winning? Not losing. If he had lost in the…
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