Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
President Obama rolled out his biggest weapon yet in his battle to get on top of his spreading oil-slick political crisis: his own oratorical power – and the Oval Office. He’s making progress, but he’s still in catch-up mode. Things might have been different if Obama had been a governor instead of a…
While President Obama struggles with a gush of oil, Bob Etheridge struggles with a gush of videos. It’s the worst close-up since Helen Thomas. Team Etheridge has to push back. And the best defense is a good offense. No, there’s no excuse for Etheridge touching – let alone grabbing – the obnoxious,…
The worst wounds in politics are self-inflicted. And Bob Etheridge has delivered himself a doozie of a boo-boo. Getting caught on tape looking like a bully is not helpful in an election year that already looks toxic for incumbents. But Etheridge can survive this. He made a good start by apologizing on…
What’s with this mania about whether President Obama has shown enough anger over the BP oil spill? Is this the legacy of Bill Clinton, who so famously felt our pain? Or that old actor Ronald Reagan, who could muster a catch in the throat and a flash of anger at the drop of…
I would have missed this one but for Seth Effron’s Quick Clips: “Perdue declares ‘war’ against school resegregation”(The Wilmington Journal). The Journal reported: Declaring that the state was ”in a war,” Governor Beverly Perdue told members of the NC Legislative Black Caucus last weekend that she, as a citizen, fully supported the efforts…
Tuesday’s primaries across the county were good for women candidates. And old governors didn’t do too badly. California Democrats nominated Jerry Brown for governor again. Brown, 72, served as governor from 1975-1983. Iowa Republicans nominated Terry Branstad for a return engagement. Branstad, 63, was governor from 1983-1999. Both were fellow governors with…
Here’s a mystery: Bill Randall says he has an MBA from National Louis University, but National Louis University says he doesn’t. Bernie Reeves’ friend, who runs a company that recruits and screens executives for businesses, contacted National Louis University (in Illinois) to verify Randall’s MBA degree. The college instructed him to contact the National Student…
Cal Cunningham may be a young gun, but he’s firing an old Democratic bullet: Social Security. Cunningham’s campaign is battering Elaine Marshall because she “suggested raising the current retirement age of 67 to receive full Social Security benefits.” Cunningham sent an email this week proclaiming, “I went on the record to commit to…
Rob Christensen’s column about the GOP’s 13th Congressional District primary was insightful about the inside-Beltline versus outside-Beltline dynamic at play – the same divide that plays out in the WakeCounty school board fight. There are two other interesting aspects to the battle: race and radicalism. There’d be no end to the irony of…
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…