Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
That’s how much Governor Cooper’s campaign spent. $16.8 million. That’s how much Pat McCrory’s campaign spent. $7.5 million. That’s how much more Cooper’s campaign spent than McCrory’s. 44.6 percent. That’s how much more Cooper spent by percentage. Nearly half again what McCrory spent. These are astounding numbers. And they should give heart to Democrats looking…
Read MoreI have a simple way of judging a political event. If I know most everybody there, and they’re my age, it’s a flop. If I don’t know many people, and they’re young, it’s a success. Governor Cooper’s Inaugural SnowBall was a huge winner. It was jammed with smart, interesting, idealistic, funny, charming and hard-working young…
Read MorePresident Obama’s farewell speech drew the lines clearly. His hope versus Trump’s hate. Reason and oratory versus tweets and insults. Building people up versus tearing them down. Bringing us together versus driving us apart. Graceful equanimity in the face of bitter partisan attacks versus a narcissistic imperative to attack any critic, doubter or questioner. Ultimately,…
Read MoreLooking back the first warning sign was his crowing: For years, the professor wrote, he’d traveled the world. He’d set up elections in strange places like Sudan. Along with his Danish colleague he’d designed the first model – measuring over 50 moving parts of the political process – to determine whether elections were fair. He’d…
Read MoreTrump hasn’t been inaugurated. The Republican Congress convened just last week. But they’ve already taken strong stands against two things they clearly oppose: Intelligence Ethics.
Read MoreThe election proved just about everyone’s fed up with Washington politics but the first day of the new Congress the Washington Politicians proved they didn’t get the message: Foolishness usually starts at the top in Congress but this time it started at the bottom with the Republican back-benchers who, out of a clear blue sky,…
Read MoreWhen North Korea said it was going to test an intercontinental ballistic missile that would reach the U.S. Donald Trump grabbed his Twitter machine and roared, ‘North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!’ Reading Trump’s tweet…
Read MoreAt Friday night’s SnowBall, a young woman bemoaned all that had happened to Governor Cooper since the election two months ago: McCrory’s month-long refusal to concede, the legislature’s power grab and, now, a winter storm disrupting his inaugural. “Poor Roy,” she said. “He can’t catch a break.” Saturday morning, as I alternated between watching the…
Read MoreThe other morning laying in bed, opening John’s Gospel I read: Truth is the road to light. Later that morning in my office opening the newspaper I read a new poll (by The Economist) said half of Donald Trump’s voters believe President Obama was born in Kenya (even though Trump now says that’s not so)…
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If you seek political asylum the next four years, try Iceland. We went there last week…
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The tumult and the shouting dies; The Captains and the Kings depart: Still stands Thine ancient…
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Bert Bennett of Winston-Salem, the legendary political godfather to Terry Sanford and Jim Hunt, had a…
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