Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Instead of one of those periodic calamities where the economy stumbles then rights itself it looks like this time America’s economic engine may have ruptured and faces a long, slow convalescence. That takes a decade. Or, maybe, doesn’t happen at all. At a meeting of economists and businessmen and politicians this week UNC-President Erskine…
Maybe there was more than I realized behind Senator Richard Burr’s vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Last week, I gave him credit for doing the right thing. But an astute Burr-watcher – not a partisan either way – noted that Burr took a different tack on what was arguably the key vote:…
Bev Perdue’s poll numbers have been upside down – meaning her ‘unpopularity’ is greater than her ‘popularity’ – almost since the day she took office. Twenty-seven years ago Jesse Helms faced similar ‘upside down’ poll numbers; his pollster Arthur Finkelstein gently explained the root of the problem was what he called a ‘character issue.’…
Let others talk about what Marc Basnight did for the university system, clean water, open records, the Democratic Party, etc., etc. Those of us who love and live on the Outer Banks have selfish reasons to thank him. When Governor Hunt put Marc on the Board of Transportation in 1977, getting to Nags…
We’ve waited nearly 30 years, but it’s finally here. Thirty years ago this month, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. He said government was the problem, not the solution. He promised that – finally – someone would really, really cut government spending. We’ve waited. And waited. And waited. Reagan didn’t cut anything big. Nor…
The N&O front-pager about “North Carolina’s three conservative Democrats” – Congressmen Heath Shuler, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre – asks whether there’s a place for Blue Dogs in today’s Democratic Party. For perspective, I turn as always to my work on Jim Hunt’s biography. (I can’t help it; I spent four years on it.…
Mrs. Edna Street is an elderly lady and a double amputee; last May when she was in the hospital her doctor sent a form to the Department of Health and Human Services asking that she be provided – under Medicaid – in-home care when she went home to convalesce. The doctor never heard back.…
Even Republicans are giving up gay-bashing. But, as always, and to paraphrase Rob Christensen, paradox rules North Carolina politics. In the last 10 years, North Carolina went from a Republican Senator, Jesse Helms, who bashed “queers” and “the homosexual lobby” to a Republican Senator, Richard Burr, who surprised people by voting to abolish Don’t…
Of course Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour doesn’t remember race relations “being that bad” in the 1960s; he’s a white guy! I grew up in the 60s in North Carolina, and I don’t remember race relations being bad at all for us whites. We could go anywhere we wanted and do anything we wanted. …
The political sniping began even as chaos still reigned at the White House Correspondents Dinner. My…
A new nationwide poll shows that, if they could run against each other in 2028, Barack…
Senator Phil Berger was out of touch with voters in his district – and suffered the…