National Republicans
Fig Leaves
There’s a lot of talk up in Washington these days about compromise: President Obama’s ready to compromise and John Boehner’s ready to compromise but, so far, amid all the cooing no one’s laid a deal on the table so it’s hard to tell if Congressmen and Senators are going to say, Gosh, that compromise is…
Read MoreSorting Us Out
The 2012 election and its aftermath show how sharply – and bitterly – divided we are in America. Elections are no longer choices between candidates or debates about issues. They are holy wars between Red and Blue America. Ferrel Guillory at the UNC School of Journalism recommended an excellent book about this split:…
Read MoreSunday Talking Points
So this whole Libya flap is about what our UN Ambassador said on Sunday talk shows? That’s what has Senators McCain and Graham and the Republican Party in high dudgeon? Not security in Libya. Not what the American deaths portend for our role there. But talking points for a Sunday talk show. Let’s…
Read MoreRepublican Reality
Will Republicans’ Election Day encounter with reality put them more in touch with reality on global warming, evolution and whether women who are raped get pregnant? Don’t count on it. Denial is a powerful habit. In the election’s aftermath, it is clear that the Romney-Republican-Rove-Fox echo chamber fell victim to their own spin.…
Read MoreThe Howl
The waitress nodded to a slender fortyish brunette at the next table and said, ‘This is Gwyn, she’s a Republican’ – then Gwyn leaned across the gap between our two tables and said, ‘Just look at those Democrats, they didn’t win anyone’s hearts or minds this election – all they did was change who voted.…
Read MoreWhat If It’s Close Again?
This election showed how closely – and bitterly – divided Americans are. Suppose we go through another 2000 cliff-hanger one day? Increasingly, we don’t just hold different views and opinions from our opponents. We hold them in contempt. We call them ignorant, bigoted, fascistic, communistic, unpatriotic and un-America. We question a winner’s very legitimacy.…
Read MoreWhich Way for North Carolina?
The decision about Obamacare highlights the tension that will mark North Carolina’s politics the next four years. The tension stems from an election that saw the nation go in one direction (largely Democratic) and North Carolina in another (almost all Republican). When political partisans win an election, they tend to believe that an…
Read MoreBoehner Offers a Compromise
The day after the election House Republican Leader John Boehner faced a tough question: Would he compromise with Obama or not? It was a Hobson’s Choice. Either way he was walking into a political minefield. In the end Speaker Boehner threw what looked like a compromise on the table – in effect, saying to…
Read MoreThe Biased Media?
Over on The Atlantic magazine’s website the liberal reporters were having a happy day after the election but not, as you’d expect, by celebrating Obama’s victory – instead, they were having a fine time ribbing conservative pundits from Ann Coulter to Karl Rove because they had said the polls that showed Obama leading Mitt Romney…
Read MoreRevenge of the Nerds
This election’s winners include not only data nerds like Nate Silver, but also the Obama campaign’s numbers-crunchers. Wasn’t data analysis supposed to be Romney’s strength at Bain and the Olympics? The Obama staff – parodied as a bunch of soft-headed, socialist community organizers – were precise and efficient in their targeting and resource allocation.…
Read More