Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
I thought it was my job to be the skunk at the garden party: yesterday’s John Locke Foundation “Headliners Luncheon.” Then Mr. Herbert Hoover Rosser (yes, his real name) stood up. I was the token Democrat on the panel. The other panelists and audience members were savoring the prospect of big Republican wins come…
Carter, if you and I are going to start being all reasonable with each other, we’re going to lose our readers! Your response poses a question I can’t begin to answer: How will Muslims around the world interpret it if we let the Islamic community center go up? (Though I would be happy…
Today’s N&O story by Jay Price and Mandy Locke captured a telling vignette from the competing political rallies by the “Spending Revolt” bus tour and Organizing For America: Both featured videos of President Obama. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a thoughtful Republican. He opined that the anger driving this year’s…
A few years ago the Department of Health and Human Services set out to reform mental care and wrecked it. Next it set out to reform in-home care for Medicaid patients and wrecked it. And, now, itâs got another â $265 million dollar â train wreck on its hands. Back before he…
Now, Gary, that’s what I call a reasonable response. And you’ve raised a good question: Does building the mosque at Ground Zero make it easier or harder to win the War on Terrorism? The theory that building the mosque takes us a step closer to victory, it seems to me, goes like this: By…
For the fourth consecutive decade, Republicans are “pledging” to cut taxes and cut spending. Ronald Reagan made the pledge in the 1980s. Newt Gingrich made it in the 1990s. George Bush made it in the 2000s. And now it’s back in the 2010 “Pledge to America.” Jon Stewart did a masterful job of…
The school board down in Johnston County has a problem: Every time fourteen-year-old Ariana Iacono walks through the door of her school with her ‘stud’ in her pierced nose she gets suspended – but she simply won’t give up. She goes home, serves out her suspension then demurely returns to school with the stud in…
Well, Carter, to be fair, I didn’t call you “a bigoted skunk.” I’ve grown more mellow these days, and I try to avoid name-calling. Instead, I said your ad for Renee Ellmers was “an appeal to anti-Muslim prejudice.” I think that is a fair statement. “Sixty Minutes” had an interesting piece about the…
In 2004, George Bush beat John Kerry by 51-47 percent in the popular vote. Four years later, President Obama beat John McCain 50-49 among the same voters. A significant swing, but not huge. What gave Obama a landslide victory was the surge of new voters. Among people voting in 2008 for the first…
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…