Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Fred Heineman’s death takes us back to the Republican tidal year of 1994, when a titanic health-care battle led to a Democratic debacle so huge Heineman temporarily unseated David Price. The big difference this year: Obama succeeded where the Clintons failed. It takes three ingredients to make an electoral revolution: (1) One side…
There hasn’t been a scene like it since LBJ in 1965: Democratic congressional leaders beaming and clapping as a Democratic President signs a big expansion of the social safety net. The question is whether today’s White House ceremony celebrating health-care reform was the last gasp of the Great Society – or a reprise of…
People always say they want politicians to do what’s right, even if it’s unpopular. Of course, they mean: unpopular with somebody else. Still, by that standard, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi showed a rare level of political guts and perseverance in pushing through health-care reform. Remember two months ago? Scott Brown had just…
John Edwards hasn’t asked for my advice in 10 years. If he did now, I’d tell him: Keep your mouth shut. The more the players in this tragedy/drama/farce talk, the worse it gets. First came Edwards’ admission – through a spokesman – of paternity. Then came the dishing in Game Change. Then came…
It is becoming clear how to fight back against Ron (Archie Bunker) Margiotta over the future of WakeCounty schools. Let him talk. Fresh after calling people at a public hearing “animals,” Ron/Archie opined recently – at a Republican Party meeting, no less – than the Wake schools should be split into smaller districts.…
A reader commented that it would be “whining” for Obama to blame Republicans for the country’s economic mess, as I had suggested. Question: Was Ronald Reagan “whining” all those years? Through the 1984 campaign – four years after he unseated Jimmy Carter – Reagan’s basic message was that he inherited a mess, it…
Public Policy Polling says that – on health care reform – Democratic Congressmen Bob Etheridge and Health Shuler “both have to decide between voting the way that folks in their party would like them to, or voting the way voters in their district as a whole would like them to.” But I’m not convinced…
Karl Rove is still playing mind games with Democrats. Pay no attention. Rove claims that, if Congress passes health-care reform, Democrats will lose Congress. Bunk. In truth, Rove fears that Democrats will pass reform, Obama will have a victory and Democrats will have something positive to run on this fall. …
Governor Perdue’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Lanier Cansler has out done himself. Here in North Carolina we’ve got a State Ethics Commission, a House Ethics Committee, a Senate Ethics Committees, dozens of watch-dog groups and a free press all ferreting out chicanery by the politicians in state government – and all 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…