Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
A true-blue progressive Democrat vents – and sums up my own reaction to the jihad against Art (“I Am Not an Heir”) Pope: “I’m over all the finger pointing at Art Pope. I don’t know him or agree with him on just about anything. However, I don’t think what he is doing is illegal…
Read MoreA TAPster who was at the South Carolina Republican debate sent these updates last night: (7:52 PM): Republicans are having a great time tonight in Myrtle Beach. Cocktail hour is in overtime as they await the 9 pm kickoff of the big debate. Many Romney supporters but, South Carolinians being South Carolinians, would love…
Read MoreIt’s somehow fitting that the state that started the Civil War generally decides the Republican presidential war. The question this year is whether Mitt Romney’s opponents picked the wrong battle. Was it a mistake to attack him on Bain Capital instead of his shifting positions on social issues? Suppose they made more of an…
Read MoreJudging from Sunday’s letters in the N&O, House Republicans certainly have stirred up the state’s teachers. And the NEA has this story about a 10-year teachers’ assistant from Moore County – a Republican herself – who is mad about how the House treated the NCAE and ready to seek revenge. She says: “The folks…
Read MoreHere I was thinking that Tom Fetzer, Thom Tillis and Phil Berger were the brains behind the Republican victory in the 2010 legislative races. I find that – instead – it was a group of political consultants based in Florida. And they’re happy to tell you so. Click here to read how smart they say…
Read MoreThe “Smith Center Boos Bev” story is why my new-media guru Nation Hahn says: “If you’re not on Twitter, you’re not part of the conversation.” I was following the New Hampshire results on Twitter Tuesday night (the best way to do it) when John Frank of the N&O tweeted that the Smith Center crowd booed…
Read MoreFour lessons emerge from Mitt Romney’s less-than-convincing New Hampshire win. First, he’ll be the Republican nominee – thanks to a cast of inept, uninspiring and half-insane conservative rivals. Second, more than 60 percent of Republicans don’t want him to be the nominee. Third, as his announcement speech showed, he lacks even a hint…
Read MoreI call it Hickman’s Law, because I first heard it from pollster Harrison Hickman: “The worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted.” Mitt Romney has inflected a doozy on himself: “I like being able to fire people.” He did it just as Winning Our Future, a super-PAC supporting Newt Gingrich, released a doozy of…
Read MoreA TAPster with years of experience around the legislature offers this take on the NCAE veto override: “The Republicans in the N.C. House have made a needless mess of their agenda with 1 am sessions to take potshots at their political enemies. It’s a mystery why the Rs made themselves look so weak and…
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Once upon a time, there was a great and powerful newspaper: The News & Observer. Everybody…
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The shouting, sign-waving and cane-wielding by congressional Democrats at the State of the Union isn’t a…
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Curmudgeonly Cajun James Carville says Democrats just need to “roll over and play dead” and wait…
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