National Democrats
Easier to Win
Most candidates view asking people to give money to their campaigns like having a tooth pulled; over twenty years, Jesse Helms never picked up the telephone, dialed a number, and asked for a contribution. Once, during a meeting, after Jesse finished answering questions his chief fundraiser asked the group of businessmen to contribute. After a…
Read MoreTwo Signs
A threat shadowing Republican candidates has been the fear that Republicans who dislike Donald Trump (and also can’t abide Hillary) won’t vote; if these ‘Ambivalent to Trump’ Republicans worried and fretted then stayed home on Election Day it looked like it could cost every Republican from Pat McCrory to a local School Board candidate votes…
Read MoreRock Bottom but Not Boring
Women were coming out of the woodwork for weeks pointing fingers at Donald Trump and Trump’s been saying if you really want to vote against a man who grabs and kisses women you ought to vote against Hillary because of Bill. We’ve had more sex on our hands than needed but finally it died down.…
Read MoreNail-biter
In both of the last two Presidential elections, North Carolina was one of the two closest states. Here we go again. The Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll shows Clinton up 2 here, Ross and Burr tied and Cooper up 3. The final New York Times Upshot/Siena College poll for North Carolina showed Clinton and Trump…
Read MoreEight days a week
Take a deep breath. It will be over in eight days. And it will be a long week. It’s fitting that the longest, meanest and ugliest election in history comes on the latest date possible, November 8. Just to prolong our agony. Now the future of the republic rests with the fickle five percent or so…
Read MoreThe Last Eight Days
Back in June, Gary wrote about an odd phenomenon: How, in the Presidential election, the candidate who dominated – who received the most press – dropped in the polls. It was as if voters thought, I dislike them both but the one I dislike most is the one I see most. Watching the Sunday morning…
Read MoreAdventures on CSPAN
You meet the most interesting people on CSPAN call-in shows. I did a 45-minute turn on Monday’s Washington Journal. We had callers from California, West Virginia, Oklahoma and exotic locales like Cary, Chapel Hill and Monroe. Now, I’m used to media interviews. The questions are usually about ads, polls, strategy and predictions. Not here. The…
Read MoreHillary’s finest hour(s)
Donald Trump’s worst brought out Hillary Clinton’s best. The finest moments in her entire political life came in the last debate when, clad in white like an avenging angel, she slew the Donald dragon for his sexism, stood up unapologetically for all women and schooled us men about the right and wrong way to behave…
Read MoreJFK and me
Teresa Leonard’s Past Times feature in the N&O today took me back to a night in 1960 when, as an 11-year-old, I shook John F. Kennedy’s hand. The N&O reported on September 18, 1960: “A swarm of wet, cheering citizens almost mobbed Jack Kennedy in their enthusiasm as he entered Raleigh Saturday. “It happened at…
Read MoreRigged Elections
Donald Trump’s hammered away saying the election’s ‘rigged’ and 24 million people are registered improperly including 1.8 million dead people;— the first time I ever laid eyes on a list of registered voters back in 1976 it was filled with dead people and people who didn’t live at the address where they’d registered to vote.…
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