Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
You think about heroes when you sit in the hot sun at a Memorial Day ceremony. The ceremony Monday was in Murfreesboro, a tiny town in Hertford County in northeastern North Carolina. I went with my mother and my two children, because my dad’s name is on a veterans’ memorial the town’s residents built this…
Here in North Carolina the Democrats poll (Public Policy Polling) shows President Bush’s popularity continues to be low (News and Observer, 5-21-07). President Bush Job Approval Approve – 41% Disapprove – 52% And, if anything, the numbers in the Republican (Civitas Institute) poll are worse. Approve – 39% Disapprove – 57% The good news is…
The Iraq-money vote turned out to be a winner for everybody in Washington. George Bush and his diminishing band of supporters got their money without any real strings. Nervous congressional Democrats inoculated themselves against campaign charges that they voted against money for the troops. Hillary and Obama and Pelosi and Reid get to tell the…
In honor of Memorial Day, congressional Democrats decided they were better off politically not to be seen as cutting off money for American troops in Iraq. That’s smart. It’s also smart to jump on another issue that resonates at Memorial Day: gas prices. A very smart North Carolina Democrat asked me this week, “Why haven’t…
The Democrats want to give North Carolina’s Electoral College votes to the candidate who wins the popular vote nationwide. Instead of to the candidate who wins North Carolina. The Republicans of course are up in arms, making the Electoral College sound as sacrosanct as the College of Cardinals. Is the Democratic plan partisan? Yes. Does…
North Carolinians need look no further than Wednesday’s action by a state House Committee to confirm that the representatives are clueless about public dissatisfaction with the legislature. – Winston-Salem Journal May 21, 2007 Last week the State Board of Elections said Representative Thomas Wright had failed to report $220,000 in campaign donations. And that he…
With the passing of Jerry Falwell and the rise of Rudy Giuliani, is the Republican Party moving to the center while the Democratic Party moves to the left? That’s my nightmare scenario. Because the party of the center usually wins: witness Republicans in the 70s and 80s and Democrats in the 90s. I’ve reassured myself…
Whatever fig leaf of credibility John Edwards had left is in tatters. Consider this report from a California blog. Edwards charges $55,000 to speak to UC Davis students about poverty. Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, who recently proposed an educational policy that urged “every financial barrier” be removed for American kids who want to go…
In the last week gas prices have risen seventeen cents. They’ve risen thirty-four cents in the past month. The last time that happened the oil industry said it was Hurricane Katrina. Which made sense. The Gulf of Mexico is full of oil rigs. So the solution was to grin and bear it. But why are…
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…