Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Today this blog is Talking About Baseball. My son James and I are Tampa Bay Rays fans. We saw a lot of their players come up with the Durham Bulls. We’ve been to a couple of spring training games. So I forgive him for calling me after midnight the other night. (One day…
Read MoreThe logical reaction to Governor Perdue’s statement about suspending elections is “what was she thinking?” Fair enough. But the really nutty statements came from what one reporter called “the black helicopter crowd.” Like: Fox News: “NC Governor Recommends Suspending Democracy to Focus on Jobs.” Think Progress: “North Carolina Governor Proposes Ignoring Constitution.”…
Read MoreThe hot topic in Raleigh today is Governor Perdue’s comment – or joke, or quip, or gaffe – about postponing congressional elections. The Drudge Report went to DefCon 5. Local and national reporters called: “Is this a real problem for her? Is this part of a pattern? Is this a big story?” Insuring, of course,…
Read MoreIf history is any guide, Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination. For some reason, Republicans nominate presidential candidates who ran unsuccessfully before – like Romney this year. See Ronald Reagan (the GOP gold standard) in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008. The exception,…
Read MoreA friend who watches politics for a trade association makes an apt observation: Voters don’t always behave the way the experts expect them to. Republicans are still celebrating their 2010 victory in North Carolina. They’re certain their redistricting schemes will give them a lock on the state for the decade – or maybe the…
Read MoreThe other morning at breakfast Richard the Intellectual (who’s a retired banker) stared at the newspaper headline – Europe Debt Crisis Shakes Stock Market – and laughed: Well, it’s beginning to look like thirty years ago the Wall Street Masters of the Universe sold us a bill of goods. Free Trade, he said, was…
Read MoreSomething about the combination of barbeque and politics makes political reporters salivate over writing a down-home story about how we’uns in Nawth Ca’lina don’t cotton to outsiders insulting our proud pork product. There has been a run of these stories since news broke that Rick Perry once dismissed North Carolina barbeque as tasting like…
Read MoreHow’s that for a headline to get your attention? But, seriously. One reason I enjoy this blog is I get insight into viewpoints that differ from mine. This week, I learned something about the attitude toward the gay-marriage amendment and, more to the point, gay people. I blogged (click here): “A business friend…
Read MoreWe’re $14 going on $16 trillion in debt, the economy’s in the tank and the only way out is to cut government spending – so it didn’t seem unreasonable to save $2.8 million by closing the 134 year old Post Office downtown (when there’s a newer Post Office a few blocks away). But not…
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