Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Last evening, a crew was putting a new roof on the house across the way. Three men worked steadily, climbing up and down a tall ladder and steeply pitched roof, hauling up shingles, hammering them in place and trimming the edges. On the ground, two women cleaned up, piling the trash into a wheelbarrow and…
Hillary Clinton’s campaign will spend today and tomorrow proclaiming that the race is over and prodding Bernie Sanders to give up. She hopes he’ll fold easier than she did eight years ago and than Ted Kennedy did in 1980 (which gave us 12 years of Republican Presidents). You can bet there’s a bitter battle going…
Fittingly, a polarized nation will have a polarized election between our two most polarizing politicians. It’s a real reality show, with voters telling one, “You’re fired,” and the other, “You’re President.” Trump can play his role in The Apprentice, and Hillary can reprise her bartender role from Saturday Night Live. As always, voters will judge…
Right after the legislature rushed through HB2 and Governor McCrory signed it in the dark of night, a group of friends discussed the issue over lunch in North Raleigh. Male and female, ages 40 to 80, they included a retired judge, a couple of lawyers, several business and political consultants and a couple of family…
Nobody who does politics knows what’s up with politics now. Republicans can’t explain why Trump is winning. Democrats can’t explain why Clinton isn’t winning. Ask candidates, consultants, commentators and the media crowd for explanations, and they all mumble, fumble and stumble. A month ago, everybody thought Republicans were headed for a deadlocked convention and Democrats…
I’m appealing to my old friend and comrade-in-arms Dennis Wicker: Don’t solve the HB2 crisis. It’s helping Democrats! Now, I feel bad saying this. Dennis is one of the finest and most public-spirited people in North Carolina. We lost out big time when we didn’t elect him Governor in 2000. Now he – and Art…
A sensible Republican legislator (there is such a thing!) was asked why Senate Republicans want to regulate wind and solar energy to death. After all, don’t these people despise government regulation? His answer – more accurately, his suspicion – was: “The Koch Brothers.” The Koch fortune relies heavily on extracting fossil fuels and fouling the…
Here are two more simple arguments for Hillary Clinton. The first comes, as in yesterday’s blog, from former Senator Bob Kerrey: “The Clintons did a good job on the economy the last time they were in the White House. I have every reason to think they will again.” The second is from a big Republican…
North Carolina voters don’t like either the Democratic or Republican parties. But Independent voters – who…
How do you get your news? Our statewide poll asked North Carolina voters what their primary…
Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…