The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

A few years ago the Department of Health and Human Services set out to reform mental care and wrecked it.    Next it set out to reform in-home care for Medicaid patients and wrecked it.    And, now, it’s got another – $265 million dollar – train wreck on its hands.   Back before he…

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The Wrong Message

Gary, doggone it, it’s like ‘déjà vu all over again’ – here you are [see below] attacking me for a TV ad. Can’t a fellow even oppose the Ground Zero mosque without being called a bigoted skunk? And how did the folks opposing the mosque become the wicked, hard-hearted ‘dividers’ as opposed to the Iman…

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Carter’s ‘Victory Mosque’ Ad

Birds fly, fish swim and Carter Wrenn pushes the envelope to the edge. That’s what they do.   Like him or not, Carter will boldly go where others fear to tread.   He did it for Jesse Helms. He did it when he and Helms had a falling-out and Carter challenged the senator to disclose…

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Politics North Carolina Style

The state can’t afford to pay to care for mental patients, or elderly Medicaid patients who need in-home medical care; tuition is going up at the state universities and even though she raised taxes a billion dollars Governor Perdue is telling us we’re broke – so it comes as a surprise to hear state government’s…

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JFK, NC and Me

The N&O had a letter today and a guest column last week about John Kennedy’s campaign visit to North Carolina 50 years ago – September 1960.   I had my own brush with history that day. Kennedy was campaigning with Terry Sanford, who was running for governor.  Sanford had broken with most of the North…

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Sarah and John

Vanity Fair magazine has a scathing profile of Sarah Palin that sounds eerily familiar.     Below are some of the article’s characterizations of Palin. I ask you: What other well-known political figure does this sound like?   “Erratic behavior and a pattern of lying…”   “Sarah Palin’s connection with her audience is complete.”  …

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The Other Budget Gap

The breakfast conversation the other day was about what happens with the state budget next year if Republicans win the state House or Senate this year.   They won’t raise taxes. So they’ll have to cut $3 billion or so out of a $19 billion budget.   My Republican friend said that can be done…

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Roy’s Ploys

In PR it’s called “getting ahead of the story.”   Roy Cooper has tried it twice on the SBI story. Not happening. The N&O owns this story. Another Pulitzer is in sight. And today the N&O showed Cooper again that it, not he, is driving this train. Yesterday Cooper tried to get ahead by announcing…

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Storm Warnings

Democrats remind me of my friends on the Outer Banks last week: battening down, nervously watching the approaching storm and hoping it turns out to be a Category 1 that spares the house – and the Senate.   There are dire warnings of losing the state Senate and possibly even the House – or a…

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Take Off

It’s Tom Fetzer’s job to run around the state sounding alarms. But it’s not the media’s responsibility to salivate every time he rings the bell.   There is no greater example than the Perdue flight flap. In the end, that looks to be nothing more than a few small licks of flame.   Fetzer did…

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