Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Raleigh City Council candidate Mary-Ann Baldwin is the victim of a high-tech version of old-time gutter politics. Supporters of an opponent, Russ Stephenson, set up a fake blog purporting to be by Baldwin. To give you a taste of the tone, one of the fake postings was signed “Mary Fucking Baldwin.” Nice. There’s nothing new…
There’s a little flap going on in Raleigh’s city elections about who’s coziest with developers. It started when someone, apparently tied to a blog supporting Councilman Russell Stephenson, put up a phony website attacking challenger Mary Ann Baldwin. But, in fact, Meeker, Stephenson, Crowder and Company – the three amigos on the City Council –are…
Most of us realize candidates for President (except the candidate we happen to be supporting at the moment), well, to put it politely, dissemble. In fact, my friend, John, is leaning toward choosing his candidate this time based on how well he dissembles. His current choice is Mitt Romney. John’s theory works like this: If…
Hunter S. Thompson once compared national political reporters to birds on a wire. One lands on a wire, the rest follow. One flies to another wire, they all follow. So look for the birds to land on a new Hillary Clinton wire soon. The conventional wisdom, as confirmed on Page One of Sunday’s The New…
In campaigns, the worst wounds are often self-inflicted. Witness two A+ political operatives I know who made D- mistakes last week. Julie White, who works for gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore, got caught using a state computer to request public-records info on Lt. Beverly Perdue. Plus, as the News & Observer’s Under the Dome has chronicled,…
To add insult to injury (as far as North Hill’s developer John Kane’s $78 million parking deck goes) the city is now building not one but two decks downtown. The first mammoth ($35-40 million) underground deck is already underway. But just to be sure he doesn’t run out of parking the Mayor’s building another 500…
What I want to know is which fool â walking around Dare County â torched Marc Basnightâs restaurant? That would be akin to burning down Don Corleoneâs olive oil business. At first when I read the News and Observer headline â âSBI Blames Arson for Fire at Basnightâs Caféâ â I thought (for one second)…
America is adrift in Iraq – and losing the war. But the political debate is about Hillary’s health care plan, Edwards’ attacks on Hillary’s “corporate insiders,” Obama’s tax plan, Moveon.org attacking Gen. Petraeus, Rudy attacking Moveon for attacking Petraeus and Fred Thompson being lazy. General Petraeus made clear in his congressional testimony that we’re not…
Several women in Raleigh reported getting taped phone calls from Hillary Clinton this week – with a message aimed right at women. I’m told Hillary says something like: When I’m President, women and their daughters will walk a little bit taller in America. The strategy is brilliant. It’s aimed at the most important voting group…
Carter Wrenn and I are moving to Substack. That’s where you’ll find our blogs in the…
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…