Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
President Obama says flat out that his stimulus bill is going to create 3.5 million jobs – is that a fact or a political fiction? Can President Obama (or, for that matter, a team of Nobel Prize-winning economists) actually predict precisely that spending two trillion dollars is going to reignite prosperity – or will he…
Since the November election, I’ve been telling business people that the election marked a new cycle in politics: from pro-business government to pro-government – and potentially anti-business – government. That cycle has dominated American history since the Civil War. Government was pro-business in the 19th Century, leading to great fortunes and the Industrial Age. Then,…
News coverage of Ned Cline’s new book about Walter Davis – and his “bags of cash” – reminds me of my two encounters with Davis. The first was in the Senate Dining Room in Washington during one of Governor Hunt’s first two administrations. I don’t recall the occasion or anything else about the meeting. But…
Gary’s plenty kind to say back in 1984 the folks in Jesse’s campaign ‘were smarter’ than the folks in Hunt’s campaign but I suspect the better term is more experienced – by 1984 we’d been using direct mail to raise money for eight years and airing ‘negative ads’ for four years; Governor Hunt hadn’t but…
I’m an N.C. State grad and a rabid Wolfpack fan. But I’m pulling for UNC this year. The last time I did this was in 1956-57, when I was a young fan of Frank McGuire’s undefeated national championship team. I got over that quickly. I spent many years enjoying hating Dean Smith and all his…
Pat McCrory said recently that he learned a lesson from his loss to Bev Perdue: negative ads work. What planet has he been on? My guess is that old warrior Jack Hawke told McCrory long before Election Day that, to win, he would have to attack Perdue. And McCrory was surprised? I suspect this is…
Last Sunday the News and Observer reported that after receiving $4.9 billion from Uncle Sam to ‘loosen credit’ SunTrust Bank finds itself in the unfortunate position of ‘calling notes’ on customers here in the Triangle. I read the article before church. Driving home after church I passed a SunTrust sign and half expected to see…
Three weeks before the election, driving to work, an ad came on the radio and I heard a woman’s voice say, Did you know Jesse Helms opposes abortion – even if a woman is raped – even in cases of incest? I thought, Oh, my God – because Hunt had just given about every woman…
Governor Perdue had the makings of a great speech last night. But she didn’t give it. When she finished, it felt like the old song: Is that all there is? I had predicted she would paint a broad picture rather than fill in details. But she certainly took that approach to the extreme. The platitude…
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…