North Carolina – Democrats
Dodging Won’t Work
No one saw it coming: Running for governor, neck and neck with Josh Stein, Mark Robinson just got upended. Robinson’s family business – Balanced Nutrition – is paid by the state to provide meals for needy children in day care centers. Robinson’s wife, who runs the company, makes $160,000 in salary. Robinson, his son, daughter,…
Read MoreRoy Put NC First
Like President Biden, Governor Roy Cooper put party and duty ahead of personal political ambition. The President did it when he stepped aside for Vice President Kamala Harris. The Governor did it when he stepped away from VP consideration. This is key from his statement: “This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and…
Read MoreNo Quit
Years of political battles taught me this: You ain’t beat ‘til you quit. There’s too much quit in the Democratic Party right now. Yes, President Biden’s poll numbers are perilous, and pressures on him to quit are enormous. Still, I’m not convinced that Vice President Kamala Harris would be a stronger candidate, even if she…
Read MoreGet Real
To Democrats who say President Biden should “step down,” I ask: What happens next? Will a magical mystery messiah emerge, unite the party in a month and march to victory 18 weeks from tomorrow? Or will there be division, a bitter battle and a contentious convention like 1968, which led to Nixon, and 1980, which…
Read MoreJoe Got Back Up
“When you get knocked down, you get back up” – President Biden in Raleigh Friday. After the debate, President Biden stopped by a Waffle House in Atlanta (photo), flew to Raleigh, gave a barn-burner of a speech Friday and got back in the fight. N.C. Democrats rallied around him, and he rallied Democrats across the…
Read MoreDebates
Debates can turn a campaign on its head. My book, The Trail of the Serpent, is going to be published in August. I tell stories about politics from Reagan’s campaign against President Gerald Ford through Trump and Biden. One story is about Jesse Helms’ first debate with Jim Hunt in 1984. In Jesse’s campaign we…
Read MoreOutside Money Talks in NC
How rotten and corrupt is campaign financing in North Carolina? Worse than you think. Capitol Broadcasting Company has exposed the impact of outside money – “dark” money, from anonymous big-money donors – on our elections. They term it “astonishing” in a series released this week. CBC Editorial reports, “Increasingly, the money influencing North Carolina elections…
Read MoreCooper Trending
I started a Cooper for President boom. I blogged and tweeted about Governor Roy Cooper as a possible candidate in 2028, and it got more responses than anything I’ve ever done. For the record, I didn’t check first with the Governor’s team. And I may have to go into hiding from First Lady Kristin Bernhardt…
Read MorePresident Cooper
The Democrat most responsible for Joe Biden being President thinks Governor Roy Cooper would be a good presidential candidate in 2028. In an interview with Politico, (“The Man Who Saved Biden’s 2020 Campaign Lets Loose”), South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn (photo) names five possible nominees: Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, California Governor…
Read MoreThe Governor’s Race: Stein Slams Robinson
I walked into my bedroom, turned on the TV, caught a glimpse of Mark Robinson’s face, turned, his voice roared – stopped me in my tracks. Most political ads are cliches wrapped in flashy graphics, dark music, laced with melodramatic voices – you watch one for five seconds and tune it out. But in Josh…
Read More