Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Like President Obama, Governor Perdue began her administration with a series of executive orders showing she’s on the job and ready from day one. First came her “change orders.” This week her budget officer sent out an email touting her steps to save money. She has little choice. North Carolina, like most states, has to…
For this year’s legislature, one thing looms larger than the budget crisis: Next year’s elections. That’s because the legislators elected in 2010 will draw up election districts for the next decade. So don’t expect anything too bold or radical from this session. The only tax increases on the table are the “sin taxes” floated by…
Bob Scott has his flaws, but he had guts. The Scott legacy will be tarnished by Meg Scott Phipp’s imprisonment – and by the IRS investigation of Scott supporters when he was governor. But Bob Scott deserves a lot of credit for modernizing North Carolina – sometimes in the face of tough opposition. Like proposing…
Professor David Steinmetz of Duke Divinity School says it is a very good idea that President Obama invited both a minister in favor of gay marriage and a minister opposed to it to pray during his inauguration – the way he sees it Obama is helping heal the nation’s wounds, end divisions, and most of…
It may be the biggest myth in American politics: the well-oiled Kennedy machine. Well-oiled it was in 1960, when old Joe Kennedy was paying for it and running it through Bobby. But the machine has stumbled ever since, especially on the presidential stage. Bobby Kennedy’s run in 1968 got off to a bad start. He…
How did David Young suddenly emerge as the leading candidate for Democratic Party chair? Here’s the story from one party insider: Governor Perdue was supporting David Parker, a long-time party activist who has wanted to be chair for years. But Chairman Jerry Meek didn’t like being told what to do. He reminded the Governor that…
Last week President Obama’s ‘favorable’ rating was an eye-popping 70% and after the last week of canonization it may now be 90% and rising. But there are shoals in the waters. Tuesday, during his inaugural, the president proclaimed, “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,”…
I’d like to know if one day last week President Obama woke up and said, The day before I’m inaugurated I’m going to paint the walls in a homeless shelter to encourage public service. Or if, instead, someone in his campaign said, We’ve got a great idea for a photo-op – then invited the press…
When John Edwards was running for Senate in 1998, the N&O did a story about how little money he had raised from the state’s business community – and how much then-Senator Lauch Faircloth had raised there. Sam Hunt, ex-DOT Secretary to Governor Hunt, was quoted as saying the road to the Senate ran through the…
Thom Tillis and Phil Berger fed the MAGA alligator. Then it ate them. Thomas Mills wrote…
Exactly 80 years ago, in 1946, Republicans took control of Congress with a simple message: “Had…
Jim Hunt would like James Talarico winning the Democratic primary in Texas. Like Talarico, the late…