A Poll: George Holding vs. Renee Ellmers

When George Holding first ran for Congress, I wrote a series of reports about how campaigns are built day to day. Now, four years later, George has a primary with Congresswoman Renee Ellmers and I’m going to do the same thing again. I should point out, at the beginning, I’m not unbiased. I worked with…

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Signs

Old people watch for signs: Pains shooting down a man’s arm, a hardly discernible lump in a woman’s breast, all either portents of disaster or false alarms and in politics there’re signs too: Like Roy out-raising Pat by $1.2 million. $5.1 million to $3.9 million. A portent? Or a hiccup? Roy raising more money than…

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A Devilish Mess

Sometimes it’s the little things that trip a fellow up. Last year, Governor McCrory called a routine meeting so two of his supporters could sit down with state officials to discuss their contract with the Department of Prisons. But then right in the middle of the meeting one of the Governor’s supporters, Graeme Keith, Sr.,…

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Glows in the Dark

Governor McCrory’s Secretary of the Environment doesn’t particularly care for solar energy so he’s set out to scuttle it by declaring nuclear energy is clean energy, just like solar. Think about that. It’s odd. The Chief Environmental Officer for all of North Carolina thinks nuclear waste, which has to be buried under a mountain in…

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The Reaction

A girl who thinks she’s a boy asked to use the boys’ bathroom at her high school. The principal allowed her to use a staff bathroom instead. Then a boy who thinks he’s a girl circulated an internet petition saying the principal was wrong. And it landed, beneath a picture of the two teenagers, on…

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Womb Police

Republicans are right: Our freedoms and liberties are at risk from an overly intrusive, overreaching government. Like the Republican-controlled government in North Carolina that requires doctors who perform an abortion after the 16th week of pregnancy to send an ultrasound to state officials. That’s kind of creepy, when you think about it. Are the DHHS…

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Ghost of Christmas Future

My last blog – a scenario wherein Donald Trump wins the Presidency – depressed some Democrats. And more than a few Republicans. So here is a Happier New Year scenario, in the form of a news story that might be written at the end of next year: In the wake of sweeping election defeats in 2016, Republican leaders…

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A nation at risk

Has America really come to this? Have we come to where we must rely on the Republican Party to save us from electing a President who is an arrogant, egotistical blowhard with the vocabulary and maturity of a fourth-grade boy and the potential to wreck our economy and start World War III? What have we…

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WRAL’s climate change

Greg Fishel says he took a while to change his mind on climate change. Then he got a quick lesson in politics. Richard Stradling wrote in the N&O (“Climate change reversal puts brighter spotlight on weatherman Greg Fishel”): Fishel’s change in thinking has showed him how divided Americans are on this subject and others. It…

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An Obstacle Standing in the Way

Saturday morning the New York Times ran a front page article about the attack in California and, right next to it, for the first time in 90 years, it ran a front page editorial – calling for more gun control. Think about that: In California terrorists killed Americans and, in New York, the Times wants…

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