Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
A well-placed North Carolina Republican has been telling friends lately that he doesn’t think Senator Elizabeth Dole will run for reelection if she draws a tough opponent. As Richard Nixon said to Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, there comes a time to get off the pot. The Democratic candidate who comes out strong first may find…
Another sign that North Carolina Democrats aren’t taking the increasingly anti-corporate tone of the national party is a fundraiser Richard Moore is holding in Raleigh this month. The host is John Kane, of North Hills fame. (Now that Moore has come out against incentives for Goodyear, maybe Kane can lobby him for his parking-deck subsidy.)…
Sometimes political campaigns are counter initiative. What you’re sure makes sense turns out not to make sense at all. John and Elizabeth Edwards are part of one campaign, but both seem headed in different directions. John Edwards wants his campaign to be about getting out of Iraq and if he can make that the dominant…
The military surge may or may not be working in Iraq. But George Bush’s political surge appears to be working at home. His surprise Labor Day visit demonstrates the power of the President – even a poll-ravaged lame-duck President – to command the political heights on foreign affairs. How can this be? How can a…
I blogged not long ago about the veto being Jim Hunt’s gift to Mike Easley – and all future Governors. Now – with Easley’s veto of the Goodyear-incentives bill – we begin to see what veto power really means. Brave New World, Chapter One: So much for being a lame duck. Easley may be ineffective…
In 200 years no President has ever had his legal powers taken from him. But, in addition to his legal powers, a President must also have a political mandate to govern, and a case can be made that three of the last seven Presidents lost that mandate before they left office. And George Bush may…
Developer John Kane’s back, asking the City Council to give him $75 million in public money (tax breaks) to subsidize the expansion of North Hills Mall. (I guess he’s figured out he can undercut his competitors if the city goes along with the county commissioners to allow him not to pay 75% of his property…
If you’re a taxpayer in Roanoke Rapids you’re a guarantor on the city’s $21.5 million loan to Randy Parton to build the Randy Parton Theatre. But if you want to know how your investment is doing forgetaboutit. How’s attendance? Is Parton paying his $41,000 per month rent on time? Is their any money left after…
Say you are a candidate and need to get in step with Republican voters on immigration, because your record wasn’t quite what it should be. There’s one tried and true political strategy: Find an opponent whose record is worse than yours and attack him. That’s what Mitt Romney is doing – accusing Rudy Giuliani of…
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…
Gwyn and I just returned from a 12-day journey through 1,000 years of history in Germany…