Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Did Governor Perdue get jobbed by the AP jobs story: “Plant deal may enrich N.C. political donors”? A TAPster who works in private-sector economic development – and is no admirer of the Governor – says yes: “The land was assembled for this purpose and is in a catalog of sites available to prospective…
My faith in The New Yorker magazine is gone. I love The New Yorker – the articles as well as the cartoons. In fact, it’s the only magazine I get in the mail – thanks to a friend who gave me a gift subscription. I look forward to it arriving every week. So…
Among my jobs at the N&O in the early 70s were copy editor and night city editor. I still read the paper with an editorâs eye. So I just about swallowed my eyeshade when I read todayâs N&O profile of Raleigh mayoral candidate Randall Williams. How do you write that story without mentioning…
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…
The 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.”…
The 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,…
If 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,…
A 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…
The 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…
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…
Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…