North Carolina – Republicans
Debates
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 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 MoreTwo Good Things
Two things lately make me feel good about this election: Josh Stein’s devastating ad about Mark Robinson on abortion and Jeff Jackson’s assessment of Trump’s felony conviction. Stein’s ad skewers Robinson with his own words; he can’t duck, dodge or deny them. Even worse is Robinson’s demeanor: angry, hateful and hostile to women. The ad’s…
Read MoreNo Defending Trump
It’s striking what Republican politicians didn’t say after Trump was convicted of 34 counts of felony falsification of business records. They didn’t say, “Trump is an honest businessman. He’d never falsify business records.” Or, “Trump is a fine family man. He’d never cheat on his wife with a porn star.” Or, “Trump is an honest…
Read MoreDemocrats Exposed
We’ve been outed, Democrats. A wily Republican strategist, Matt Wylie, has exposed our real agenda. In an op-ed in The Charlotte Observer, Wylie warned his party what America will face if Democrats win this year: “Increasing the federal minimum wage to $17/hour, incorporating provisions of the Green New Deal, implementing new federal voting rights mandates,…
Read MoreThe 70-Year War Against Public Schools
After 70 years, North Carolina’s school segregationists are nearing their cherished goal: destroying the public schools and replacing them with racially segregated private schools. And you, the taxpayer, are paying for it. On May 17, 1954, 70 years ago this month, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregated schools were unconstitutional. Across the South, and…
Read MoreGrand Old (Drunk) Party
Before North Carolina Republicans got down to business in the legislature, they got down to some serious partying. First there was the incident at the December wedding of Rep. Destin Hall, who wants to be Speaker next year. One of his groomsmen fell off a truck and was injured so badly he was hospitalized for…
Read MoreTrust Flies Out the Window
Planned Parenthood’s spending a ton of money – $10 million – to elect pro-abortion candidates in North Carolina. Eyes locked on white suburban women it’s running digital ads, knocking on a million doors to elect Joe Biden, the Democrat candidate for governor, and break the Republican super-majority in the state House and Senate. The first…
Read MoreHow Low Can They Go?
The Kelly Daughtry-Brad Knott race shows how low Republicans will go in their pathetic pandering to Donald Trump. The May 14 runoff in the 13th Congressional District, south and east of Raleigh, is all about who can bow down deepest to Trump. Bryan Anderson wrote in The Assembly, (“The GOP’s Family Feud”), that Daughtry’s father…
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