North Carolina – Republicans
Suck It Up, Democrats
North Carolina Democrats need to get out of their funk. You can see why so many of them are down. We got hammered in 2010. The Republicans grabbed control of the legislature, the budget, the political agenda, redistricting and fundraising with efficiency and ruthlessness. Democrats got down even more when many of their…
Read MoreRun! (Away!)
A TAPster raises a key question about the Democrats running for governor: Why? See below: Your blog today about Bobby Etheridge and Dan Blue and their crafty mobilization of black voters prompted a thought about the Democratic governor’s primary in North Carolina. Why would any Democrat want the job? Walter Dalton, Etheridge…
Read MoreWhat’s He Been Smoking?
Paul Coble’s gone and done it again. Just a few months ago Paul Coble was asking Joe Knott to support him for Congress. Now, treading water, Paul’s hit the panic button and called Joe Knott a wild-eyed liberal – because Joe’s supporting George Holding and not Paul. Next, out of a clear blue…
Read MoreCoble Heaves a Mudball
Yesterday, Paul Coble reared up on his hind legs and brayed like a mule and hurled a mudball straight at George Holding – which is a sure sign Coble’s campaign is in trouble. The rhubarb began Saturday at the debate – Coble rolled through a homily to himself then Bill Randall asked, What about…
Read MoreBurn the Heretics!
After all these years, I find out that Carter Wrenn is a liberal. He had me fooled â working for Jesse Helms, where he ran ads calling Jim Hunt a âMondale liberal.â Even after we became friends and worked together on some non-political projects, he maintained the façade of a crusty conservative. Now…
Read MoreDemocracy in Action in the State House
The News and Observer headline read, Thom Tillis pushed bill for donors. And the first line claimed Tillis had “muscled through” a bill so his donors could charge folks (who’re near the bottom of the 99%) 36% interest on loans. But here’s an odd fact: Not one Democratic legislator had a critical word…
Read MoreCousins
Last week when I was standing in the back of the bookstore my cousin Winifred, who’s past eighty and pure steel magnolia, walked through the doorway and made a beeline straight to me and snapped, Were you at that convention? Last week at the Republican convention the Chairman, Susan Bryant, called Bev Perdue was…
Read MoreMore on Ayn Rand Grant
The John William Pope Foundation took issue with my recent blog “Reading Ayn Rand.” I’m always flattered that the Pope people read my blogs and think they’re important enough to take issue with, so I’m happy to post their comments. Note, however, that there is nothing here to change my basic point: The best way…
Read MoreWill NC Decide GOP Race?
I hope North Carolina Republicans get to do this year what North Carolina Democrats did in 2008: decide their party’s presidential race. Obama clinched the nomination when he won North Carolina’s primary, according to none less than the late Tim Russert of NBC. So I’m pulling for Rick Santorum to win tonight –…
Read MoreSantorum’s Contraception Obsession
Rick Santorum, who wants to take America back to 1900, takes me back to 1984. That was the year of the Hunt-Helms race. In the dying days, we were behind in the polls – and desperate. With the help of (believe it or not) Dick Morris, we came up with a bomb to blow…
Read More