Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Keeping Score
Until the voters vote, there are only two ways to keep score in politics: polls and money. So here’s what the second-quarter fundraising scorecard tells us: John McCain: Put butter on him, because he’s toast. His hopes are dying for one reason: He supported the immigration bill. And Republican primary voters hate him for it.…
“Poisonous” Politics?
To honor July 4th, I take issue with Sunday’s front-page story in The News & Observer: “Attacks replace issues; politics turns poisonous.” Excuse me, but have they heard of the 1984 Hunt-Helms race? Or the 1950 Smith-Graham race? There is nothing new here. The only thing new, really, is cable TV, the Internet and talk…
A Constitutional Head-butt
The News and Observer headline – “Executive Privilege Showdown Looming” – may sound boring, but it could be the start of some real fireworks. The Democrats sent a little subpoena over to the White House, demanding to see records about “The Bush Administration’s terrorism-era warrantless wiretapping” and a few other things. The President sent it…
Shaking Up the World $50 Million at a Time
Who’d have ever dreamed Hillary Clinton would raise over $50 million – and that Barack Obama would outraise her by almost $5 million. Worse – if you’re Hillary – Obama now has 258,000 donors, who’ll keep giving and giving, which spells a big financial edge in the coming months. This is a political wind change…
Bush Justice
The Bush Presidency was conceived in contempt for the law: a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that stopped the 2000 vote count while Bush was still ahead. So it’s no surprise that Bush commutes Scooter Libby’s sentence so as to keep him out of prison. While Democratic politicians – like Kevin Geddings and Jim Black –…
Left Turn Ahead
Here’s good news for Democrats and liberals: the youngest generational cohort is more like us than are older voters. A poll by The New York Times, CBS and MTV found: “Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the…
Pirates of the Potomac
American government, it turns out, is a lot more colorful than I was taught in High School Civics class. Take the stale, old, boring ‘The Separation of Powers Doctrine.’ It turns out it’s not boring at all. The real theory here seems to be that most politicians are pirates. So the Founding Fathers set up…
What Raleigh Needs Is a $150,000 Consultant?
Mayor Meeker and the City Council are considering changing Raleigh’s C.A.C. (Community Action Council) structure. And, of course, the first thing someone suggested was hiring a consultant to do a study. For $150,000. The C.A.C.’s are gadfly-like neighborhood groups funded by the city to advise the City Council. Right now, they claim 6400 members. But…
The Wizard Behind Hillary’s Curtain
Mandy Grunwald may be the best political consultant youâve never heard of. Sheâs the image-maker behind Hillaryâs âSopranosâ video. And sheâll handle the ongoing repackaging of Hillary. Iâve known Mandy for more than 20 years. She worked with David Sawyer when he was Jim Huntâs media consultant, including in the 1984 Senate race. Of course,…