National Democrats
Nobody Likes a Bully
Contrary to how things looked after North Carolina passed the marriage amendment, Gay Politics Week may end up hurting Mitt Romney far more than President Obama. It’s telling that Republicans didn’t pile onto Obama after Joe (Gabby) Biden forced him to come out of the closet. Then the story exploded about Romney organizing…
Read MorePrequel to November?
Four years ago, the May primary thrust North Carolina into the national spotlight. An unexpected surge of new voters clinched the Democratic presidential nomination for Barack Obama. The tide raged on into November. It lifted Democrats to one of their biggest election victories in decades. This year, we’re back in the spotlight. This time,…
Read MoreA Hole in the Boat
It looks like the prosecutors put a pretty big hole in Edwards’ boat last Thursday: For months Edwards has been arguing the million dollars he took from ‘Bunny’ Mellon and Fred Baron wasn’t a campaign donation because he spent the money to hide his affair from his wife and not voters. But Thursday two…
Read MoreA Man Without a Party
Ever since what one observer called David Parker’s “televised suicide bombing,” I’ve been pondering his infamous press conference performance. Especially: Who told him that would be a good idea? The answer, apparently, is no one. I’m told that he talked to no one on the party staff, sought out no one’s advice. …
Read MoreBin Laden Politics
Mitt Romney is about to come unglued because President Obama ordered the operation that killed bin Laden. First Romney said “even Jimmy Carter” would have ordered the raid. Then he said “any thinking American” would have. Presumably, that explains why President Bush didn’t. Of course, Romney overlooks the fact that some military…
Read MoreBlame Newt Gingrich
A capital veteran says of the Charles Thomas/lobbyist scandal: “Sex between legislators, staffers and lobbyists isn’t anything new. Been going on for years. What’s new about this is a private investigator hired by an undisclosed client did the N&O’s investigation and the N&O printed the result. This is a spooky precedent.” Laura Leslie…
Read MoreWalter, Bob, Bill and Pat
Walter Dalton, Bob Etheridge and Bill Faison are slugging it out in the Democratic Primary and the prospect of one of them emerging flat broke after the election and facing Pat McCrory (who’s sitting on $3 million) in the fall has Republicans feeling warm all over about winning the Governor’s race for the first time…
Read MoreNeeded: A Manhattan Project
The all-but-certain presidential nominee emerges from his party’s primaries bruised and bloodied. He was mocked relentlessly as a flip-flopper and a panderer, a career politician with no inner core, a former governor with little to brag about. The brutal march to the nomination drove his favorability ratings into the ground. He faces an incumbent…
Read MoreRomney Versus Romney
The Obama campaign’s “Truth Team” kicked into gear as Mitt Romney wrapped up the Republican race. They’ll have plenty of material to work with, starting with Romney pioneering Obamacare, which he now promises to “kill.” This video, “The Anniversary of Romneycare,” lays bare Romney’s hypocrisy.
Read MoreThe War Over Women
Often in politics it’s your friends – not your enemies – who do you the most damage. Democrats were on a roll with the Republican “war on women.” Then a Democratic operative, Hillary Rosen, let slip a comment that some people heard as a “war on moms.” Rule One, as President Obama observed,…
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