Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Is Senator Kay Hagan overreacting on Obamacare, or should Democrats rush to the lifeboats and abandon ship? If you go by the N&O website’s headline – “Hagan calls for probe of healthcare website as political support drops” – you’d panic. After all, she had a conference call with reporters to call for investigations of…
Mitch McConnell sounded a lot like an old-fashioned political boss: He sat down with a columnist from the Wall Street Journal, whipped out a knife, and plunged it right into the Tea Party. To govern, McConnell said, parties must win. And to win they have to run candidates who’re adults. That was a…
Polymorphous America enjoyed a boom week last week. The Senate passed a bill to show any fellow who doesn’t cotton to hiring transgenders, bisexuals or gay people the error of his ways. And, overjoyed, the President announced a more tolerant America goes hand in hand with a more prosperous America – as if…
Governor McCrory and legislative Republicans have a theory: Cut taxes and regulations, and jobs will flow in. What if they’re wrong – not only on the economics, but also on the politics? What if their theory leads to North Carolina becoming a more Democratic state? The question arises from two recent conversations: one…
The way the Tea Partiers see it, to save the country they have to do to the Washington Republicans what General Sheridan did to the Indians during the Indian Wars. Because when the Tea Partiers say, We can’t vote to raise the Debt Ceiling unless Obama cuts spending – the Republican Bosses say back,…
Only one million World War II veterans are still living in America today. My stepfather, Joe Dickerson, is one of them. Joe was in the first wave to land at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Fourteen of the 30 men on his LCVP died in the water or on the beach. His unit, Company E,…
Since I’ve been rough on Governor McCrory – and will be again – I’m providing equal time today to a TAPster who makes a valid point: “Here’s one vote to stop harassing Governor McCrory over expenditures to make the mansion a modern, livable home. In fact, those of us who care about the state should…
My grandmother, years ago, would regularly tell me, Carter, you’ve got your wants and your needs confused. It turns out reporters have the same problem. What reporters need, just about every day, is a story. And what they want is a crisis to make it an interesting story. Take the newspaper headlines…
It’s one town and one election, but it was one hell of a shot in the arm for an old Democratic war horse like me. A dedicated, sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated crew of young organizers and Appalachian State students helped sweep the Boone Town Council races for a slate of progressive, forward-looking candidates, including Andy Ball…
Some progressives groaned when Governor Josh Stein announced a bipartisan “Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education”…
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…