Raleigh
Rechanneling WRAL
News that long-time sportscaster Tom Suiter is retiring at WRAL-TV takes long-time viewers back. Back to what some of us view as the Bad Old Days at the station. The N&O noted that Suiter, from Rocky Mount, was brought to the station by Jesse Helms, then WRAL’s executive vice president for news – and nightly…
Read MoreSin, Murder and Trespassing
Last week I had dinner with Paul the theologian and Willie, who is a rosary-thumping Catholic and, for a moment, I thought the Reformation and the Seven Years War were about to start all over again. Oddly, what started the conflagration was Willie saying he’d just read Pat Buchanan’s new book; then he leaned across…
Read MoreThe End of World-Class Schools
Back in 2005, when 90% of the students in Wake County Schools passed state achievement exams, the New York Times ran an article lauding our world-class schools, attributing their success to the School Board’s ‘diversity’ policy. Well, last week, our world-class schools vanished into thin air. It turns out for years, critics have been criticizing…
Read MoreJosh Stein and New Raleigh
No race shows more dramatically how Raleigh has changed than Josh Stein’s smashing 3-to-2 victory over Johnny Mac Alexander in Senate District 16. Alexander is prototypical Old Raleigh. He and his family are pillars of the city’s long-time business and social elite. He graduated from Broughton. He and his family have done great work at…
Read MoreStealing Signs
Ruth Sheehan’s column this morning raises a perennial campaign complaint: “The Democrats/Republicans are stealing our yard signs!” No campaign manager has ever escaped getting that call. Yard signs are the bane of a campaign. They cost money, and no political pro believes they do any good. But any candidate – as well as his or…
Read MorePat Stith on Jim Hunt
When one of my favorite reporters says something nice about my favorite politician, I have to share it. In an interview with the N&O’s Pat Stith on WRAL-TV last week, Bill Leslie reported that Jim Hunt was “the governor and politician Stith admires most.” Stith said of Hunt: “I may have interviewed him six or…
Read MoreNegative Election
No, I don’t mean “negative” as in negative ads. I mean that this election in North Carolina could be a perfect photographic negative of past elections. Four times in a row, North Carolina voted Republican for President (and in Senate races) and Democratic for Governor. This year the opposite may happen. Why? First there’s a…
Read MoreThe Gang of Four
We liberals pride ourselves on our commitment to clean, open and ethical government. Then we get in power and show that we can be just as hypocritical as the other guys. Witness the Gang of Four – the members of the Raleigh City Council who have been meeting in private to discuss city business, according…
Read MorePat Stith
Pat Stith is the best reporter there ever was. Not at The News & Observer. Not in North Carolina. The best. Ever. Anywhere. I had the good luck to work with him at the N&O in the early 70s. We once worked together on a story about state government misusing federal jobs money. I learned…
Read MoreEasley’s Farewell Gift
Down to his last four months in the governor’s mansion and looking ahead at his future beyond politics, Mike Easley has given his wife a five-year contract to work at North Carolina State University for $170,000 a year. Democrats are giving Sarah Palin the devil for trying to fire one Alaska state trooper – but…
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