North Carolina – Democrats
Overplayed
Since when does an obviously political and apparently unsupported charge by the state Republican Party chairman rate a screaming, streaming headline across Page B1 in The News & Observer? The third graf of the story said: ‘The head of the state elections board said Wednesday that officials are reviewing how all gubernatorial campaigns…
Read MoreDem’s Blues
Politico has an excellent overview of what’s happening to once-Republican states that went Democratic in 2008 – including North Carolina. One reason it’s excellent, of course, is that it quotes me. Click here to read the analysis.
Read MoreHigh Heels
Maybe I’ve got this wrong but it seems like for years state government was bumbling and fumbling, but basically – except for the occasional road building scandal – honest. Now, times have changed. State government is still bumbling but its also learned chicanery and sleight of hand. Follow this story from the newspaper the…
Read MoreErskine to the Rescue
Can Erskine Bowles save America? Can history repeat itself? I was about halfway through the book The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History With the President, by Taylor Branch, when I heard that President Obama will name Erskine and another Great Compromiser, former Senator Alan Simpson, to lead a national commission on the budget deficit. …
Read MorePutty in Her Hands
Last summer, Governor Perdue promised legislators huge spending cuts in Medicaid if they’d let her pass out $250 million in no bid contracts – which she said would bring cost saving efficiencies. They did. She did. But no savings materialized. Instead, the Department of Health and Human Services is $250 million over budget.…
Read MoreStay Tuned
Tiger Woods ought to offer John Edwards a free golf lesson – a thank you for knocking him off the front pages of the newspapers. Last week there was a new twist in the saga of John and Liz and Andy and Rielle – and, surely, after this development the announcement the four of…
Read MoreTrick ‘Em
Back in her days in the General Assembly the Governor developed a sure-fire way to deal with legislators: Bumfuzzle ‘em. For instance: The Governor’s biggest department, the leviathan Department of Health and Human Services, has already plowed through its $200 million budget increase, plus spent another $250 million on no-bid contracts (a lot of…
Read MoreEnquiring Media
It must drive The News & Observer’s editors crazy. Every time the National Enquirer publishes a sensational new twist in the John Edwards soap opera, the N&O editors – like the rest of the mainstream media – have to decide whether to ignore it or check it out. Last week, they checked out…
Read MoreWhat’s Up? Obama!
Every day I read how badly things are going for President Obama. Democrats and Republicans, the mainstream media and the bloggers all alike trash him, his staff, his health care strategy, his jobs plan, his position on the banks, on and on. Then I read a poll – commissioned by the Civitas Institute,…
Read More$6,700 Each
Last week a chill just stole out of the State Board of Elections and settled over the Republicans in the State House – Democrat Leader Joe Hackney filed his campaign’s financial report. And he has a healthy $418,000 in the bank – while Republican Leader Skip Stam has just $13,000. Representative Stam made the…
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