Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Polls suggest that President Obama is losing independents who are concerned about federal spending and rising debt. In North Carolina, Governor Perdue and Democratic legislators fear the political consequences of the coming combination of budget cuts and tax increases. Democrats don’t need to panic yet. The honeymoon had to end, and Obama had to…
Ironic news juxtaposition: Monday was the deadliest day in a year for America military forces in Afghanistan. Seven dead. And Robert Strange McNamara died. When McNamara became president of Ford and then JFK’s Secretary of Defense in rapid succession, all Washington marveled at the power of his intellect. Lyndon Johnson thought McNamara was so…
This afternoon an email flies in over the transom: The states broke and Governor Perdue’s been forced to call for a $1.6 billion tax increase. An hour later another email flies in over the transom: The Department and Health and Human Services has just had to make an emergency appropriation for ‘items needed by…
Nearly a year later, we now see how reckless John McCain was to pick Sarah Palin for Vice President. Suppose McCain had won. Suppose he had died in office or become incapacitated. The woman who made that incoherent and incomprehensible statement last week – so strange it made Mark Sanford look sane – would…
Two “issue” ad campaigns caught my eye this week. They show where this kind of media strategy is going. One ad was about U.S. Senator Kay Hagan and the others, state Senator Doug Berger. When I first saw the ad about Hagan, I thought: She’s already running a campaign ad? It sounded just…
As good as our Democratic politicians here in North Carolina are at providing us with scandals…the Academy Award this year is going to South Carolina’s Governor. Nobody’s seen anything like what’s going on ‘South of the Border’ since Sherman burnt Columbia. See if you can figure this out: The Governor went to…
Back when Lauch Faircloth was a Democrat in Jim Hunt’s Cabinet (pre-1984), he liked to say a governor had to have “command presence.” Governor Perdue’s poll numbers may be low because the public does not see that quality in her today. Speaker Joe Hackney had what struck me as a might chilly reaction…
Could there be three more quintessential American stories than Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays? Jackson was the Elvis Presley of his day. He and Elvis were racial crossovers, bringing black music into white America. Someone told me Jackson was the first black performer on MTV back in the days when the network…
Two of the best lines I’ve heard this week re John Edwards and Mark Sanford: “The definition of narcissism is thinking you’d look good in a sex tape.” “Now we know why Mark Sanford rejected the federal stimulus package. He already had all the stimulus he needed.”
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…