National Republicans
The Decade of Obama?
The Teens may come to be Barack Obama’s decade the way the Eighties were Ronald Reagan’s decade. Ideology aside, the two Presidents have much in common. Both were outsiders who ran campaigns that upset conventional wisdom. Both had lives before politics – Reagan as an actor and union leader, Obama as a…
Read MorePolitical Terror
Republicans – including Senator Richard Burr – couldn’t wait to blame the Obama administration for the Christmas Day terrorist scare. In other words, to indulge in the kind of politics they called unpatriotic when Bush and Cheney were in charge. Let’s look at some facts. A. Burr agrees with the President that…
Read MoreOne Year
A year is a long time in politics. One year ago: Barack Obama was a colossus, a superstar who had transformed politics Bev Perdue was about to enjoy a (short) honeymoon The clouds over Mike Easley were just gathering Tony Rand was ready for another turn as second-in-command of the Senate Wake County Democrats were…
Read More31 Million Reasons
President Obama and the Democrats are doing a better job ramming health-care reform through the Senate than explaining it. They should try this message: 31 million. That’s the number of uninsured Americans who will get health insurance over the next decade because of the bill. That’s not Democratic rhetoric. That’s from the nonpartisan…
Read MoreCapital Potty-Break Putsch?
Are Washington Republicans learning from Wake County Republicans? Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, a leading opponent of the health-care reform bill, said Sunday: “What the American people should pray is that somebody can’t make the vote.” Democrats protested that Coburn was wishing misfortune on a Senator. Maybe Coburn was just hoping that…
Read MoreTiger, Mark and John
Tiger Woods, Mark Sanford and John Edwards should arrange a threesome – on the golf course, that is. They have a lot in common. Like how to fall so far so fast. The Roaming Eye of the Tiger makes Sanford and Edwards look tame. Last I checked, Tiger was something like 10 or…
Read MoreGeneral Washington and Newt
Not every politician can straddle a fence standing on one leg, but Newt Gingrich can do it and make it look easy. For over a decade Newt’s enthusiasts and supporters have been saying his ‘Contract with America’ was why the Republicans swept the 1994 election – but, in fact, right here in North…
Read MoreThe New Republican Strategy for 2010
Back after Obama rolled into the White House and North Carolina turned into a ‘Blue State’ overnight Gary told me wryly, Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to blow it. Now that Republicans are leading in the polls Gary’s looking a bit clairvoyant but, on the other hand, it’s now Republicans who seem…
Read MoreWanted: Competence
Ideologues – left and right – see elections as referendums on philosophy. But voters – often as not – are looking for simple competence. Somebody to run government well: protect us from enemies foreign and domestic, encourage job growth, educate our kids, spend tax money wisely and sparingly, etc. Republicans lost in 2006 and…
Read MoreThe Essential Woman
When I was a boy I had a wire-haired terrier, a stray who showed up on the farm and made himself at home; one day walking past a woodpile the terrier spotted a barn rat and in the blink of an eye charged, ears tucked back, hair bristling; now, far as I know, that…
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