Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Totems and taboos are fascinating kinds of devices – they’re a mixture of rational and irrational or, depending on your point of view, heresies. The Celts worshipped tree spirits and there have been taboos (on everything from kosher foods to cannibalism) since before the dawn of time. Today, racial slurs are tabooed. That doesn’t sound…
Read MoreThe most worrisome news today is that Governor-Elect Perdue is conducting a “nationwide search” for a secretary of Health and Human Services. I hope she has better luck than Governor Hunt did. When he was first elected in 1976, Hunt did a nationwide search for an expert to run the state’s troubled and overcrowded prison…
Read MoreObama’s fleshing out his plan to whip terrorism. But I’m not sure about his new policy in Afghanistan. It comes down to this: We’re going to shower them with money – so by the time we finish pouring cash on them and building roads and schools and bridges and supermarkets they’ll love us and turn…
Read MorePresidents fight two wars. One to get elected. And one that starts the morning after the election. Only they may not know about the second war. Naturally, Barack Obama may think his authority (in the legal sense) as president gives him power to run his own government. But authority is a long way from control.…
Read MoreFrom the N&O’s Under the Dome: Karl Rove thinks U.S. Sen. Richard Burr could help save the GOP. In a proposed road map out of the political wilderness published last week in Newsweek, the former political strategist for President Bush said that Burr could be a fresh face for the Republican Party. He contended that…
Read MoreGovernor-elect Bev Perdue has sought to separate herself from Governor Easley – sometimes indirectly and sometimes directly. During the campaign, she said she would be more open and transparent. She promised a more ethical administration. Election night, she said “there’s a new sheriff in town.” The media focus has been on her staff and Cabinet…
Read MoreMark Johnson of the Charlotte Observer is one of the best political reporters I know, but I don’t think his story about Zach Ambrose was quite fair about the campaign that Perdue’s transition chief ran. Johnson wrote: Ambrose comes into the job with some obvious challenges….(S)ome observers will be watching to see if he’s got…
Read MoreOnce upon a time not so long ago Wachovia Bank, a hundred-year-old bank, was as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. What went wrong? It’s a tale of miscalculations and mistakes – by its own managers. As a result investors have seen their shares plummet and the bank put on the auction block not once,…
Read MoreThe fight over the future of the Republican Party has spilled over into the state chairman’s race. Linda Daves has the job. Fred Smith, apparently, wants it. And there’s a third, lesser known, candidate. Daves’ critics say the last two elections prove she knows little about politics. Smith’s critics say he spent $2.5 million of…
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Does a message about “workers,” “working families” and “working-class voters” really work for Democrats? Or does…
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I’ve resisted the temptation to rail every day about Trump’s cruelty, corruption and incompetence – and…
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Jeanette Hyde went from Miss Yadkin County to Madam Ambassador. Hyde, who died Monday at age…
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