Carter Wrenn
Gary Pearce
Two weeks from today, Democrats either win their biggest landslide in three decades (since Watergate) or Republicans celebrate the biggest upset since Truman-Dewey. Either way, both parties will quickly see a war between their respective bases and everybody else. Here are the scenarios: Win or lose, Democrats will start debating What It All Means for…
America’s population – now 300 million – could top 400 million by the time my children start thinking about retiring (around 2040). I believe that’s a good thing for our country. Given today’s hostility toward immigrants, that probably wouldn’t be a popular political position. But here’s why I say it: Population growth means economic growth…
For the last couple of weeks Mayor Meeker’s been meeting with unhappy city garbage workers. Last week, in a show of bonhomie and empathy the Mayor spent the morning riding a garbage truck. He told the News and Observer (10-14-06) he “wanted to learn about the job as sanitation workers protest for better pay and…
The Department of Transportation spends billions, but, in the last three years, its team of nine internal auditors has only produced “one complete report and eight memo’s or letters.” (Charlotte Observer; 10-13-06). The DOT’s chief auditor told investigators that “his staff spent most of 2003 on training and did not produce any new reports after…
House Speaker Jim Black was pretty vague at Kevin Geddings’ trial about his meeting with lobbyists for lottery giant Scientific Games the night before he appointed Geddings to the Lottery Commission. But Black wasn’t vague at all about another meeting. He testified lobbyists for G-TECH (another lottery company) “brought an important visitor to his office…
The Gallop organization has taken a poll about the impact of the Foley scandal on the election. Dick Morris writes on his website Vote.com that it shows “the Republican base…has moved out.” “The Gallup poll of Oct. 6-8 shows that, in the wake of the Foley scandal, the number of “white frequent churchgoers” who are…
Jesse Helms used to warn about the dire threat posed by the “radical homosexual lobby.” Now it looks like they’ve infiltrated his own party. And a subtext to the Foley story is whether Republicans will start chasing gays out of the big tent. Democrats are excused for taking satisfaction in the irony: The daddy party,…
Vernon Robinson’s been know to stretch a fact when it comes to heated political rhetoric. But the other night at their debate Congressman Brad Miller beat him hands down. Miller said, “Mr. Robinson, most people think I’m most offended by your insinuations about my sexual orientation or your saying my wife and I can’t have…
Two of Mayor Meeker’s allies on the City Council, Russ Stephenson and Thomas Crowder, cast the only votes against building a new Wal-Mart in southeast Raleigh. Why? In a sense the answer is ideology. Councilmen Stephenson and Crowder are two politicians who have an ideology. They want to convert Raleigh into a patch-work of neighborhoods…
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…