Jumping Out of the Frying Pan…

Gary has a point in his column (below) ‘Pat and Jesse’: Pat McCrory’s fight with the Associated Press isn’t like Jesse’s long-running battles with the media.   In Jesse’s eyes, the media was biased. It didn’t like his conservative philosophy. Plus, as Senator John East once said admiringly, Jesse was a brawler. Part of him…

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Not The Faintest Idea

It was a simple question but back in February after the big coal ash spill it needed a quick answer:  Were the coal ash ponds a ticking time bomb or nothing to worry about?   A few days ago the State Official in charge of the coal ash cleanup told the Environmental Review Commission, “We…

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Maybe Not The Best Idea

About a week ago the Governor went on a tear about 60 Minutes, saying Leslie Stahl had done him wrong; that he’d sat sweating under the hot lights for an hour answering questions but she hadn’t even blamed Democrats once for the coal ash spill – all his work had been for nothing. Worse than…

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He Gets No Respect

He’d been through, he said, the ordeal of sitting for a whole hour and fifteen minutes under hot lights, sweating, answering questions but then, he added, when he saw the interview on TV he had been shocked.   He sounded – not in the TV interview but, later, when he described the interview to a…

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The Seed of Wickedness?

  Generally speaking it looks folks see the riots in Missouri two ways – Jim Martin who serves on the local School Board gave an example in the newspaper of one way: After the riots he explained to his fellow School Board members they were watching a ‘classic disconnect between how officialdom and people in…

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Good Luck, Bad Luck

Talk about a fellow being star-crossed – after the election as everyone took a deep breath and settled back peacefully for Thanksgiving the Governor, without a lot of hoopla,  quietly launched his reelection campaign, blanketing the Internet with a nice pleasant new video – then, the next day, an environmental group announced it had found…

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A Waste of Time

The Governor sent a letter to Thom Tillis and Phil Berger taking the legislature to task for asking for an independent audit of the Department of Health and Human Services.   Then the next day, when the Governor needed it least, the News and Observer reported that when DHHS’ new computer didn’t work the Department…

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The Whole Tarbaby

Pat McCrory had one of those days.               First, a typist switched an ‘h’ for an ‘f’ so he sent out a press release announcing a Wilmington company was ‘firing’ 1300 new workers instead of ‘hiring’ 1300 workers.   Then a passing photographer snapped a photo of the Governor with his arm draped across…

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Not a Ticket Splitter

A pollster will usually ask voters: Would you say you 1) Always vote Democratic, 2) Usually vote Democratic, 3) Always vote Republican, 4) Usually vote Republican or 5) would you say you split your ticket and vote for about as many Republicans as Democrats?   Down at the Editorial Board (not in the news room)…

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Disapproving of Pat

    36% Approve 46% Disapprove   The WRAL Poll painted a bleak picture  of a Governor caught between a rock and a hard place.  As Mark Binker wrote, only a little over a third of the voters approve of the job Governor McCrory is doing.   But worse news lurked beneath the surface.  …

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