Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Iowa Oscars
Only in America. After Iowa, the leading Presidential candidates are: An African-American man. The real thing, with a father from Kenya. A Southern Baptist preacher with a sense of humor and a populist streak. Both Obama and Huckabee get two prizes for winning: a big boost and a big bullseye. Put on your Kevlar, gentlemen.…
Iowa Predictions
Only one result from the Iowa Democratic caucuses will surprise me tonight: a big win for Hillary. Three outcomes seem possible: Edwards wins big. But Mr. Conventional Wisdom decrees that he has to win again somewhere else to prove he’s not a one-hit wonder. Obama wins big. And Mr. Conventional Wisdom says that Hillary is…
Geezers Gone Wild?
A friend who is in Iowa this week was struck by two things: “How seriously the Iowans we’ve met take their politics and with what discipline they entertain each candidate’s view” “The Obama headquarters was full of energy and not a person over 30.” News reports suggest that maybe 100,000 of Iowa’s two million voters…
Happy New Year
2008 will be a good year. It’s the last year of the Bush Presidency. So let’s get off to a good start with this from David Letterman (thanks to the reader who passed it on): President Bush has attended a conference on what to do about malaria. At the end, Bush announced, “The U. S.…
Charlotte Rising?
Money talks in politics and there is more money – a lot more – in Charlotte than anywhere else in North Carolina. So the emergence of two new candidates from Charlotte may be Republicans’ best hope of nominating candidates who can match the Democrats’ – until now – huge financial edge in the campaigns for…
Speculating on the Presidential Race
Here is a bit of speculation – just for the fun of it – with the first round of Republican Presidential primaries around the corner. Mike Huckabee – Rolls to victory in Iowa, then South Carolina. Which makes him one of the final two Republicans left standing. He will fight it out with either Romney,…
Walter “The Dodger” Dalton?
Some free advice for State Senator Walter Dalton, Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor: Don’t dodge debates. Don’t give your opponents that club to beat you with. Dalton is saying he won’t participate in debates matching the Democratic candidates. So one opponent, Hampton Dellinger, is riding Dalton hard about it. Dalton needs to wake up, smell…
Freedom Requires Religion?
The Republican presidential race is serving one useful purpose. It is forcing us to think about the role of religion in politics. Too many people either assume or dismiss that role without thinking hard about it. Examine this statement by Mitt Romney: “Freedom requires religion, just as religion requires freedom.” Really? Does freedom really require…