Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
John Edwards has been counting on Iowa to be the spring-board for his Presidential campaign. He’s led there all year. But, last week, without warning the Presidential quicksand shifted beneath his feet. He plummeted from first place to third, dropping fourteen points (in the University of Iowa poll) from 34% in March to 20% now.…
Who’s With Pelosi? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be in Raleigh today, speaking at Meredith College. The question is: Who will be with her? That is, which Democratic politicians will be there to have their picture taken with the San Francisco Democrat – and who will duck it? Specifically, will either Lt. Governor Beverly Perdue…
The appointment of John Drescher as Executive Editor of The N&O means the paper will be led by a newsman who knows North Carolina politics and government. Drescher wrote a great book about the 1960 Terry Sanford-Beverly Lake race for Governor. He is the son-in-law of Phil Carlton, one of Jim Hunt’s oldest friends. Drescher’s…
When John Edwards boasts he will win Iowa because he’s ‘got more feet on the ground’ (meaning volunteers) than Hillary and Obama it’s a sure sign his campaign is on life support. Edwards has run head-on into three brick walls. Money. Money. And Money. Obama and Hillary each have $30 million more than he does…
Not long ago the American dream was to own a home with a yard on a tree lined street in the suburbs. Now that’s called ‘sprawl’ and Mayor Meeker and the urban correctness crowds have a solution. It’s called – glowingly – density. What it, in fact, means is high-rises crammed with apartments and condominiums.…
The Democrats usually don’t experience much stress when it comes to recruiting candidates. They’ve got two behemoths running for Governor. They’ve got candidates running against Congressmen Robin Hays and Walter Jones. And they’ve even got a candidate running for Congress in the Tenth District – where a Democrat hasn’t been elected in forty years. But…
The flap over the state giving $40 million in incentives to Senator Tony Rand’s – one assumes – friends at Goodyear Tire and Rubber just took another strange turn. After Rand’s bill – giving Goodyear a good-sized chunk of state pork – passed it was promptly vetoed by Governor Easley. Then the legislature returned to…
A Democrat poses this question about Kay Hagan’s run for U.S. Senate: “It is going to be interesting to see how voters respond to Hagan’s candidacy and whether she can dance around the question (or put it to bed) of whether she is running b/c Neal is gay. If you think back to the Sanders/Gantt…
A few years ago, I made an issues ad criticizing then State Representative Richard Morgan. Of course, Richard didn’t like being criticized any more than anyone else – so he filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections claiming the group airing the ad was violating state elections law and to make a long…
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…