Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Red sea in Raleigh
Not surprisingly, commentary on the teacher rally focused on teacher pay – and teacher politics. Namely, will the red tide that swamped the Legislative Building Wednesday swamp the Republicans in November and sweep in the Democrats? Both parties were ready. The Republicans covered their windows with selective numbers on their teacher pay record. They rolled…
Reality Show Politics
Republicans elected Donald Trump to ‘drain the swamp’ and today they still enjoy watching the ‘Trump Show’ but it’s beginning to look like he’s not going to be able to whip the Washington Establishment. Instead, many of the men around Trump have morphed into Washington Insiders themselves. Tom Price is one example. It’s an old…
A Tiff (Between Democrats)
It was odd. In Wake County, during their primary, a coalition of liberal activists led by Dean Debnam launched a campaign to defeat four incumbent Democratic County Commissioners (who I’d always thought of as pretty liberal themselves). You wouldn’t usually expect to find a liberal Democrat doing favors for a developer but that’s exactly what…
Dick Jenrette’s rules
Raleigh native (and Broughton grad) Richard Jenrette was a legend on Wall Street and in the world of historic preservation. He also earned the admiration of a wide range of friends and associates. When he died recently at the age of 89, he left behind on his desk 24 rules to succeed – in finance…
A Shared Value
You need to ask a question about Workfare, the pollster said. As a rule of thumb, you can ask sixty questions in a poll and I’d started out with ninety – I looked down at the thirty questions I’d deleted then asked, Do you think people are more concerned about Workfare than these other issues?…
Hall’s fall
Duane Hall didn’t let party leaders push him out. So the voters threw him out. Hall’s handling of sexual harassment accusations smacked of Trump. Hall denied ever doing anything wrong. He attacked the women who spoke up. He attacked the media as having a “personal vendetta” against him. Only 27 percent of the primary voters…
Hall’s fall
Duane Hall didn’t let party leaders push him out. So the voters threw him out. Hall’s handling of sexual harassment accusations smacked of Trump. Hall denied ever doing anything wrong. He attacked the women who spoke up. He attacked the media as having a “personal vendetta” against him. Only 27 percent of the primary voters…
The N&O leaves home
The N&O has left its old home, about the same time I stopped getting the paper at home. I hope the change works out for both of us. It may be tough for them. I hear money is tight there, and my going digital-only is a $470 hit to their revenues. Rob Christensen was right…
Trump lies
Now, I could do a blog with that title every day. And I choose not to go down that path. But this is a special case. Who past the age of 10 fakes a doctor’s note? And who would write things like “he would without doubt be the healthiest individual ever elected President”? Just one,…