Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
There’s an unusual thing happening on the City Council: Two of Mayor Meeker’s cronies, Councilmen Thomas Crowder and Russell Stephenson, are up in arms about people tearing down old houses to build new ones. Now, you wouldn’t think that would be troubling. It’s one way old neighborhoods evolve. It improves property values (having a big…
Here’s a heck of a thing: The Community Colleges are overcrowded, there’s a shortage of funds and classrooms, and the head of the Community College system has just ordered all fifty-eight campuses to admit illegal immigrants. Why? Well, the Community Colleges’ Lawyer has discovered a 1997 ruling by then Attorney General (now-Governor) Mike Easley that…
After one recent Democratic presidential debate, a couple of people told me they were impressed by Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd. One even liked Dennis Kucinich. (Clearly, some counseling is in order there.) Too bad you can’t vote for any of them. Or anybody else, for that matter. Because of the way our nominating system…
Iâm going to start a âheated upâ watch. âHeated upâ is the most overused lead in political news coverage. Itâs a cliché reporters resort to all too often when candidates attack. So Iâm going to call out any uses of âheated upâ I see in political coverage. The latest sinner is an excellent reporter, Mark…
Mark Binker, the Raleigh correspondent for The News & Record of Greensboro, has a good blog. He recently engaged in an exchange with GOP Governor-wanna-be Bob Orr over who should be responsible for education. Binker wrote: “Orr had said that responsibility for education should rest with the governor. And in my snarky way, I asked…
The pre-Thanksgiving flap over a Republican judge’s comments about redistricting is a classic case of a politician committing a sin by speaking the truth. The truth is that the 2008 and 2010 elections are critical to the long-term political future of North Carolina. Whichever party controls redistricting – in the legislature and in the courts…
Up in Washington, back when Judge Mukasey stuck his head in the sand ostrich-like and declared he didn’t know anything about water-boarding, you can bet every Senator in the hearing room knew (translated from political-speak into English) what he meant was, You boys know I wouldn’t be sitting here if I disagreed with President Bush…
Election victories always carry the seeds of defeat. Because winners too often can’t help but overreach. Look at George Bush after 2004, Newt Gingrich after 1994, Bill Clinton after 1992. Go all the way back to FDR trying to pack the Supreme Court after his historic landslide in 1934. Mayor Charles Meeker’s new City Council…
When campaigns prep for debates, they have to decide which audience is most important: the inside media/politico audience or the voters. Hillary Clinton faced that choice this week. Thursday’s debate was crucial for her. She was bleeding, and the sharks (or piranhas) were circling. She chose to play to the media. Her team figured she…
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…
A reassuring lesson from our trip to Germany and Czechia is that dictators, despots and tyrants…