Erskine Bowles and the Community Woodpile
The best thing about blogging again is reconnecting with old friends. Like Erskine Bowles, who emailed to welcome Carter and me back.
In 2004, I worked in Erskine’s unsuccessful race against Richard Burr for Senate.
Erskine and I had a rocky relationship then. I pushed him to do things he wasn’t comfortable with, like running early ads blasting Burr’s record in Congress.
Erskine once got so mad at me for arguing with him he hung up mid-call.
Even if I was right politically, I admire Erskine for doing what he thought was right.
And it worked out. He would have been miserable in the Senate. He is an executive by nature and practice.
He did more good for North Carolina as president of the UNC system from 2005-2010 than a senator could ever do.
Erskine was an investment banker when President Clinton picked him to run the Small Business Administration. He later went to the White House and rose to become chief of staff.
He kept the ship of state on course through Clinton’s impeachment scandal in 1998.
Erskine negotiated the nation’s last balanced budget, with Newt Gingrich. When Clinton left office, the deficit was zero and there was talk of paying down the national debt.
Then George W. Bush blew that up with tax cuts for the super-rich, like all Republican presidents do.
Erskine would have been a great governor. When he was still in the White House, my pollster friend Harrison Hickman and I went to see him and encouraged him to run in 2000.
He already had thought about it and worked on some policy ideas. Typically, he put the policy ahead of the politics.
He decided not to run.
In 2002, he ran against Elizabeth Dole for Senate, then against Burr in 2004.
Both were Republican years, in the wake of 9/11.
Erskine’s father, Hargrove (Skipper) Bowles was a victim of bad timing, too. Skipper was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1972, the worst year ever here for Democrats.
He had been Governor Terry Sanford’s director of conservation and development. In 1961, he and Sanford desegregated the state parks, a brave step then.
Erskine always quotes his father’s admonition: “You have an obligation to give back to the community woodpile.”
Erskine and his family have given much to North Carolina’s woodpile.
Erskine Bowles and the Community Woodpile
The best thing about blogging again is reconnecting with old friends. Like Erskine Bowles, who emailed to welcome Carter and me back.
In 2004, I worked in Erskine’s unsuccessful race against Richard Burr for Senate.
Erskine and I had a rocky relationship then. I pushed him to do things he wasn’t comfortable with, like running early ads blasting Burr’s record in Congress.
Erskine once got so mad at me for arguing with him he hung up mid-call.
Even if I was right politically, I admire Erskine for doing what he thought was right.
And it worked out. He would have been miserable in the Senate. He is an executive by nature and practice.
He did more good for North Carolina as president of the UNC system from 2005-2010 than a senator could ever do.
Erskine was an investment banker when President Clinton picked him to run the Small Business Administration. He later went to the White House and rose to become chief of staff.
He kept the ship of state on course through Clinton’s impeachment scandal in 1998.
Erskine negotiated the nation’s last balanced budget, with Newt Gingrich. When Clinton left office, the deficit was zero and there was talk of paying down the national debt.
Then George W. Bush blew that up with tax cuts for the super-rich, like all Republican presidents do.
Erskine would have been a great governor. When he was still in the White House, my pollster friend Harrison Hickman and I went to see him and encouraged him to run in 2000.
He already had thought about it and worked on some policy ideas. Typically, he put the policy ahead of the politics.
He decided not to run.
In 2002, he ran against Elizabeth Dole for Senate, then against Burr in 2004.
Both were Republican years, in the wake of 9/11.
Erskine’s father, Hargrove (Skipper) Bowles was a victim of bad timing, too. Skipper was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1972, the worst year ever here for Democrats.
He had been Governor Terry Sanford’s director of conservation and development. In 1961, he and Sanford desegregated the state parks, a brave step then.
Erskine always quotes his father’s admonition: “You have an obligation to give back to the community woodpile.”
Erskine and his family have given much to North Carolina’s woodpile.