Well, I’d say Obama did pretty well at his press conference the other night – so he must just have been off his game a couple of weeks ago at his first press conference.
Right now Obama’s going through the part of his presidency where folks are taking a good [...]
It’s right there on the front page of the newspaper: The governor’s got a $3.4 billion hole in the budget to wrestle to the ground and fill – so she’s cut spending $1.3 billion a year.
But there are two other numbers in the newspaper that are peculiar.
$21.4 billion [...]
Well, Obama’s after A.I.G. hammer and tongs. Which is fine. More than fine.
But there’re also a couple of overlooked questions worth considering: Like why didn’t the Washington genius (and it’s beginning to look like it was Treasury Secretary Geithner) who poured $170 billion into A.I.G. have the good sense [...]
President Obama says flat out that his stimulus bill is going to create 3.5 million jobs – is that a fact or a political fiction? Can President Obama (or, for that matter, a team of Nobel Prize-winning economists) actually predict precisely that spending two trillion dollars is going to reignite [...]
Gary’s plenty kind to say back in 1984 the folks in Jesse’s campaign ‘were smarter’ than the folks in Hunt’s campaign but I suspect the better term is more experienced – by 1984 we’d been using direct mail to raise money for eight years and airing ‘negative ads’ for [...]
Last Sunday the News and Observer reported that after receiving $4.9 billion from Uncle Sam to ‘loosen credit’ SunTrust Bank finds itself in the unfortunate position of ‘calling notes’ on customers here in the Triangle.
I read the article before church. Driving home after church I passed a SunTrust [...]
Three weeks before the election, driving to work, an ad came on the radio and I heard a woman’s voice say, Did you know Jesse Helms opposes abortion – even if a woman is raped – even in cases of incest? I thought, Oh, my God – because Hunt had [...]
I think I’ve only spoken to Jim Hunt once in my life – after the fourth debate.
Jesse got better in each debate but a slip in the third debate set off a small powder keg: The head of the Veterans for Foreign Wars (VFW) had endorsed Hunt and it [...]
The night after the debate Jesse figured there was no one to blame but himself but, by the next morning, he’d figured out that was wrong. He’d lost, he told me, because of the format (which, he added pointedly, was my and Tom Ellis’s doing). Then, having straightened out who [...]
After a year of reading all our research files on Jim Hunt and watching Hunt on TV I’d come to the conclusion Hunt was kind of political Caspar Milquetoast – a politician who always had his finger to the wind and changed with the breeze. Well, Hunt had his finger [...]
One thing is like fate in political campaigns: The unexpected always happens. It happened to us three days after we caught Hunt in the polls.
Bob Windsor was an aardvark. He must have been a farmer – once – because he wore bibbed overalls like a farmer but he’d decided his [...]
There comes a moment in a political campaign – if you’re fortunate – when for one moment the stars align and you can see with almost clairvoyant certainty exactly what the campaign is all about and how to win – that moment came for us in December of 1983: We [...]
When you start a campaign 25 points behind but have a lot of money you start running ads early and we did – 20 months before the election.
Now the folks who worked at the Congressional Club were ideologues. True believers. We saw the world in black and white. Us [...]
Nobody ever accused Jesse Helms of being naïve but he made a pretty serious misjudgment when it came to running against Jim Hunt – Jesse didn’t think running against Hunt would be a cakewalk but he had the idea he was as popular (or more popular) than the governor and [...]
Like Billy Flynn in a Chicago courtroom Obama’s speech to Congress was all razzle-dazzle. It takes a silver tongue to spend a trillion dollars then say you’re against big government and get away with it. I don’t know who else could have done it. Surely not Bobby Jindal.
Politics is pretty [...]
Once upon a time North Carolina was considered the most anti-union state in the country; back then, nobody ever heard of a Democrat like Jim Hunt or Bob Scott supporting legislation to create more unions – but that’s exactly what Senator Kay Hagan is doing. So, what changed?
It’s simple: [...]
Here is, perhaps, the ultimate irony: Former KGB head and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is warning the United States against socialism. Quote: The U.S. should take a lesson from Russian history and not put its faith in “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s [...]
Yesterday, reading a report in the paper about all the bills introduced I got the impression the state legislature is a hotbed of activity – so last night at dinner with a state representative I said, It looks like you all have been pretty busy. He frowned, I don’t know [...]
Most everybody in America has figured out by now the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street are fallible, but no matter how much cupidity there is in board rooms and executive washrooms it’s beginning to look like Congress is still king of the hill when it comes to waywardness. [...]
I wonder if Abraham Lincoln’s shoes are big enough to fit both his feet and Barack Obama’s? Before the ink dried after the election, Obama said, like Lincoln, he was going to appoint a ‘Team of Rivals’ to his cabinet. He rode to his inaugural following the same route as [...]
The governor’s been doing a lot of talking lately about cleaning up the probation mess and Senator Phil Berger’s just announced he’s taking her at her word and introducing a bill to help.
First, Senator Berger wants the legislature to pass a law to make it legal for all [...]
It’s always seemed there might be a little bit of hoax about the Wake County School Board’s ‘diversity’ policy – that the policy was really about race and not academics (as the board has argued for years).
The board has made its case like this: It says it buses students based [...]
Most times, to me a Jamaican voodoo doctor rattling chicken bones makes as much sense as an economist, and I’d say there is a greater probability the voodoo doctor’s predictions will come true.
The fact is I simply do not understand economics. It’s as much a mystery as astrology. Or [...]
Well, Gary gave President Obama rave reviews about Monday night’s press conference. I had a different – and apparently partisan – reaction. There was a time, not so long ago, when Obama talked a language that sounded a lot like plain everyday English but now, well, he’s taken to talking [...]
Well, it’s like déjà vu all over again. A Democratic congressman stands up, looks the president in the eye and says, I’m not for sending any more troops to fight until I see an exit plan. Only, this time, the president he’s looking in the eye is Obama and the [...]
President Obama spent a lot of time last election railing against lobbyists. He said when he was elected he was going to tie them in knots. Curtail their mischief. Send them into political exile. But three months later, more than ever, government in Washington is about ‘the great grab.’ Lobbyists [...]
Tough times call for stern measures and in Manhattan they’re up to the task. To cope with the economic crash a group of young women – girlfriends and spouses of Wall Street wunderkind – have formed a unique support group, Dating a Banker Anonymous.
The young women meet to [...]
In just a fortnight Obama’s gone from “Yes, we can” to “I screwed up.” Tackling the labyrinth of imperial government – with its legions of lobbyists, special interests and hard-bitten politicians – in Washington has turned out to be a tough nut to crack. In two weeks the best and [...]
These days Mike, the Republican Political Warrior, has the blues. In three short years he’s witnessed a political meltdown, which he expressed this way the other day in an email: I always reckoned the end would come. I just didn’t expect it to come in my lifetime.
Eight years ago, [...]
You know, Wall Street’s about to convince me Obama’s right about this tax the rich stuff.
Last year, in the middle of the economic meltdown, Wall Street passed out $18 billion in bonuses.
Obama’s reprimanded the varmints, saying, Shame on you, which I’m sure left them quaking with guilt. But, still, it’s [...]
Back in the turbulent 1960’s my high school held what was then called Club Night – an open house where all the school’s clubs (Spanish, French, Math, History, and so on) hosted receptions in classrooms to recruit members.
When I got home that night my mother asked, Well, which did you [...]
The Reverend William Barber is a fellow who can spot a hot-button issue (or, at least, what’s a hot-button issue if you’re head of the NAACP, which Barber is) – so, instead of shrugging off four students making fools of themselves by writing (admittedly outrageous) graffiti about Barack Obama in [...]
Here’s another suggestion for Republicans in the General Assembly.
Tuesday the News and Observer (which seems to have an absolutely nonpartisan passion for exposing corruption in state government) published another story about the foibles of the Paroles/Probation Department – the outfit that lost track of 15,000 paroles under Governor Easley. [...]
Professor David Steinmetz of Duke Divinity School says it is a very good idea that President Obama invited both a minister in favor of gay marriage and a minister opposed to it to pray during his inauguration – the way he sees it Obama is helping heal the nation’s [...]
Last week President Obama’s ‘favorable’ rating was an eye-popping 70% and after the last week of canonization it may now be 90% and rising.
But there are shoals in the waters.
Tuesday, during his inaugural, the president proclaimed, “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our [...]
I’d like to know if one day last week President Obama woke up and said, The day before I’m inaugurated I’m going to paint the walls in a homeless shelter to encourage public service. Or if, instead, someone in his campaign said, We’ve got a great idea for a [...]
All this talk about Obama being Lincoln is getting downright troubling – either our new president’s contracted a bad case of idol worship, or this is a ploy to wrap himself in the cloak of Lincoln because he’s gotten into the business of presidential myth-making even before he’s taken the [...]
At first glance it looks like Barack Obama’s sitting on top of the world, but this poor fellow’s actually sitting on a dozen time bombs.
Running the American Empire these days is first cousin to being assigned hazardous duty in the bomb squad. The war we were winning, Afghanistan, is going [...]
Her fourth day in office Madame Governor trooped up to Washington, held out her hand, and asked Congress to give her $18 billion – plus, another billion or so she needs to balance the state budget.
She sat down with North Carolina’s Congressional Delegation, then with Obama’s transition team, [...]
Last fall, after Obama got elected, Richard the Intellectual got so discouraged about politics he took to reading religious poetry – The Divine Comedy about cured him of that but, then, he switched to the Civil War and when he got to the Battle of Antietam the gloom thickened.
The [...]
Monday Madame Governor signed a spate of executive orders and it’s time for the Republicans in the House and Senate to strap on their shields and bucklers and have at it. They’re supposed to be the loyal opposition and this session they would be wise to take the job [...]
It was hard, personally, not to like Mike Easley – at times Easley showed a lack of pretension rare in governors which, by most reports, made him immanently likeable. But he also showed a void of interest when it came to the workings of his own government that the word [...]
You have to credit Raleigh attorney Gene Boyce with the virtue of stick-to-itiveness.
Eight years ago Boyce’s son, Dan, ran for Attorney General against Roy Cooper.
If I remember the facts correctly, during the campaign Cooper ran an ad attacking Dan Boyce (and his father) for their handling of a lawsuit [...]
The smoke’s clearing from the election and the voter statistics tell a simple straightforward story: Four years ago African-Americans were 19% of the voters – this year they were 25%.
Obama’s campaign said it was going to turn out 250,000 new African-American voters – and darn near did it. Thanks [...]
Don’t those words have a startling ring – after all, Democrats loathe wars (and instead, at least, these days in Congress, seem to have fallen in love with bailing out Wall Street billionaires).
But, now, the Democrats have a war of their own – and they’ll own it lock, stock and [...]
A group of my friends have been having a more or less ongoing debate between ‘Decliners’ and ‘Optimists.”
The ‘Decliners’ take one look at, for instance, the governor of Illinois and say, You see, look, one more proof virtue is kaput. The country’s headed downhill and there’s no turning back – [...]
A year ago Democrats couldn’t dredge up a candidate against Liddy Dole – now they’ve got ‘em coming out of the woodwork to take on Richard Burr.
Burr has a litany of problems. For instance, he’s not nearly as strong a candidate as Mrs. Dole and he needs to get that [...]
Well, the parole system is broken and according to the News and Observer all kinds of parolees have been running around unsupervised and literally killing people – so which political party is howling bloody murder and up in arms to solve the problem?
The Democrats.
Senate Leader Marc Basnight, it turns [...]
After I read Gary’s blog yesterday I called and asked for a copy of the article where Rep. House Republican Leader Paul Stam declared offshore oil derricks would be tourist attractions; it turns out Gary gave a speech to a Chamber of Commerce group Stam also spoke to – so [...]
Obama’s now sailed into the seas called the Terrors of Victory;—after a fellow wins something as grand as a presidential election he’s just naturally tuckered out and feels he’s earned a few days rest. That’s when the trouble starts. While he’s resting, since he can’t personally appoint all the under-secretaries [...]
The Great Grab is on: American government is a treasure chest where anyone who needs cash – and has political clout in Congress – can reach in and help himself. Take shell-shocked CEOs facing Christmas without bonuses (which sounds a lot like bankruptcy to them).
Like GM: Consumers are spending less, [...]
Totems and taboos are fascinating kinds of devices – they’re a mixture of rational and irrational or, depending on your point of view, heresies. The Celts worshipped tree spirits and there have been taboos (on everything from kosher foods to cannibalism) since before the dawn of time.
Today, racial slurs are [...]
Obama’s fleshing out his plan to whip terrorism. But I’m not sure about his new policy in Afghanistan. It comes down to this: We’re going to shower them with money – so by the time we finish pouring cash on them and building roads and schools and bridges and supermarkets [...]
Presidents fight two wars. One to get elected. And one that starts the morning after the election. Only they may not know about the second war.
Naturally, Barack Obama may think his authority (in the legal sense) as president gives him power to run his own government. But authority is [...]
From the N&O's Under the Dome:
Karl Rove thinks U.S. Sen. Richard Burr could help save the GOP.
In a proposed road map out of the political wilderness published last week in Newsweek, the former political strategist for President Bush said that Burr could be a fresh face for the Republican [...]
Once upon a time not so long ago Wachovia Bank, a hundred-year-old bank, was as solid as the rock of Gibraltar. What went wrong? It’s a tale of miscalculations and mistakes – by its own managers.
As a result investors have seen their shares plummet and the bank put on the [...]
The fight over the future of the Republican Party has spilled over into the state chairman’s race.
Linda Daves has the job. Fred Smith, apparently, wants it. And there’s a third, lesser known, candidate.
Daves’ critics say the last two elections prove she knows little about politics.
Smith’s critics say he [...]
When the heads of the Big Three went to Washington to ask Congress for $25 billion to save their companies, one congressman asked, What will you do, personally, to make a bailout a success?
The president of Chrysler said he would work for a dollar a year.
The congressman looked at the [...]
Talk about Old White Guys (OWGs) – when I read Gary’s blog yesterday I had to look up what a Prius was, which I guess is emblematic of a problem for a lot of us OWGs – the rules have changed and we can’t learn the new language.
Here’s an example: [...]
Well, now, I’ve taken to reading the Life section of the newspaper to continue to monitor the pulse beat of culture.
Thursday there was an Ann Landers-type self-help column about religion written by a Methodist minister. The question she was asked by one of her readers was: “What’s the difference [...]
There was another bad sign this morning for the legions of change: Obama has named a penultimate Washington insider to his first Cabinet post: Tom Daschle will be leading Obama’s crusade to change health care.
Now, as far as I know, former Speaker Daschle is a nice, decent fellow [...]
To most people – like Bill Clinton losing his party’s control of Congress in 1994 – one election is usually enough of a wake-up message. But Republicans are hard-headed – if madness is repeating the same mistake over and over with the same result we qualify. We shrugged off 2006, [...]
When folks lose elections they go into paroxysms of contrition – usually confessing to the wrong sins.
And when they win, there’s a parallel temptation – they attribute victory to virtues that had little to do with their success.
Now, mi amigo Gary surely has a point when he says Republicans are [...]
Barack Obama is going to fill his Cabinet with a “Team of Rivals?” Like Lincoln. This is going to be one big mistake.
Let me get this right: Obama is going to appoint people who disagree with his policies (which they will promptly torpedo) and, when they do, he can’t fire [...]
Bev Perdue’s gone back to being Miss Positive, setting up the Endowment for Positive Gubernatorial Campaigns – a $50 million trust fund – to pay for her next campaign for governor.
But there’s one catch: To get his share of her fund Perdue’s Republican opponent must pledge not to criticize her: [...]
Last week I had dinner with Paul the theologian and Willie, who is a rosary-thumping Catholic and, for a moment, I thought the Reformation and the Seven Years War were about to start all over again.
Oddly, what started the conflagration was Willie saying he’d just read Pat Buchanan’s new [...]
Back in Jesse Helms’ campaign in 1990 when we made the ‘infamous White Hands’ ad one of the handful of people sitting in the studio was Alex Castellanos; lately Alex has been spending time on CNN and the other night he was asked how the Republican Party could save itself [...]
Horror of horrors, John Edwards is back in the newspaper the second day in a row. This time he has flown all the way to San Francisco to find a safe haven to debate Karl Rove.
One thing Edwards is not doing is taking any risks by talking to the press. [...]
Sometimes politicians just can’t help being politicians, which, most times, means they can’t help gilding the lily or coloring the truth, even when they don’t need to.
Kay Hagan is dropping her lawsuit against Elizabeth Dole.
Want to guess why?
For the good of the people of North Carolina.
Now, why couldn’t Hagan [...]
Back in 2005, when 90% of the students in Wake County Schools passed state achievement exams, the New York Times ran an article lauding our world-class schools, attributing their success to the School Board’s ‘diversity’ policy.
Well, last week, our world-class schools vanished into thin air. It turns out for [...]
The morning newspaper was a blow to Obama supporters and the legions of young people who just voted for change: Because in the Obama administration, lobbyists are in.
Back during the campaign Obama excoriated lobbyists by saying, “They won’t find a job in my White House” – but his post-election [...]
What’s the definition of penance in modern American politics? We now know exactly. It’s three months without speaking into a TV camera.
Three months ago, John Edwards confessed to an affair with a blonde aide, did one TV interview, then announced he’d said all he had to say about that [...]
Yesterday morning, lifting a stack of emails my eye fell on the note written across the top of the first page, ‘This one looks serious.’
It was from Richard the Intellectual. All it said was, ‘Has the world ended?’
Richard is what he himself describes as a ‘decliner’ which, I can tell [...]
Well, the hollering and screaming is over and instead of being amazed by the antics of politicians we can go back to the normal everyday rhythms of life that get disrupted every four years by an election.
What went wrong for Republicans here in North Carolina? What didn’t go wrong [...]
With all the howling going on and the attacks being hurled back and forth on TV between the various campaigns it must be pretty hard for the last handful of undecided voters to figure out what’s true – but Elizabeth Dole may have given them one thing they are going [...]
Way back in April, Bev Perdue looked voters straight in the face and said she’d had it with negative ads. She was done. Finished. She was taking hers off the air. Ending negative politics meant more to her than being governor.
“Win or lose,” she said, “It’s the right decision [...]
I’m having a hard time figuring out John McCain’s strategy: First, he’s running as the champion of Joe the Plumber – then we find out his campaign sent Sarah Palin on a $150,000 shopping spree at Saks and Neiman Marcus.
I don’t begrudge Governor Palin her new clothes but I [...]
Being in a campaign is like peeling the skin off an onion: You just keep peeling away layers until, finally, you get to the core.
It turns out in the three major races in North Carolina the core is the same: the fellow sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. If you like [...]
Does Kay Hagan believe in God?
To put it bluntly, in her new ad Senator Dole answers that question – No.
Dole’s case goes like this: Something in Boston called the Godless Americans PAC held a fundraiser for Hagan. They – very clearly and outspokenly – do not believe in God. And [...]
In the Senate race it’s deja vu all over again for the third time: The same scarlet thread running through the races for President and Governor runs right on through Elizabeth Dole’s race.
If you like George Bush, you vote for Senator Dole. If you don’t, you vote for Kay [...]
For years it’s been a North Carolina tradition for governors to appoint big contributors and fundraisers to the State Board of Transportation and, as a result, over the years more than a few roads have been paved for what looks a lot like political reasons.
But with corruption getting out of [...]
When it comes to drilling off North Carolina’s coast, Bev Perdue is like the Scarlet Pimpernel: She’s here, she’s there, she’s everywhere, that damned elusive Pimpernel.
She’s gone from being 100% against drilling off North Carolina’s coast to saying (at the WRAL debate) that she wanted oil companies to start drilling [...]
It’s like déjà vu all over again. The same thread runs through the Governor’s race that runs through the Presidential race. If you like President Bush you vote for McCrory. If you dislike President Bush you vote for Perdue – except for the Republicans who are unfavorable to the President, [...]
Who knows how this election will turn out in the end? There are about 500 polls out there, but now I’ve just seen one that makes sense to me (Not one of these automated dialing wonders by a machine that can’t tell if it’s talking to a sixty-year old man [...]
One thing about campaigns: They do have a way of getting down to home truths – though most times they try pretty hard to hide it.
One home truth is the candidate’s character. Or, occasionally, the character of whoever is behind the candidate pulling the strings. Another is the external forces [...]
Well, last night I watched the Great Debate and a couple of things struck me.
When the smoke cleared there were three different groups all pursuing different goals:
The Obama supporters.
The McCain supporters.
And the press.
The goals of the Obama and McCain supporters were simple: To pound their chests and holler they’d [...]
It’s come killing time in the presidential race and the Old Admiral’s in trouble – it’s the fourth quarter, he’s behind and he’s got to drive the ball down the field and score, right now, or he’s going to find himself throwing ‘Hail Mary’ passes.
We Republicans keep telling ourselves [...]
I received a curious email, followed by a phone call, from Richard the Intellectual. Richard tends to watch politics from afar but something happened yesterday that left him completely, absolutely enraged.
He got a brick in the mail from State House Republican Leader Skip Stam.
That’s right, a brick.
The kind, as Richard [...]
Who knows, this election may really be about change and not just political double talk about change from politicians reading polls.
Or, at least, whether the politicians beating the “change drum” are sincere or not – the voters are dead serious.
Which would explain some curious poll numbers we’re seeing right here [...]
Democrats in North Carolina have a long-running problem. There is a culture of corruption a mile wide and a mile deep that runs right through the heart of their politics.
The core of their problem is how they raise the money that pays for their political operations, from the North Carolina [...]
I’m still stuck on John McCain saying Barack Obama supports ‘comprehensive sex education’ for kindergartners.
If McCain is telling the truth he’s convinced me – 100% – Obama does not have the judgment to be president.
But if, on the other hand, it’s not true, he’s landed me in [...]
Down to his last four months in the governor’s mansion and looking ahead at his future beyond politics, Mike Easley has given his wife a five-year contract to work at North Carolina State University for $170,000 a year.
Democrats are giving Sarah Palin the devil for trying to fire one Alaska [...]
This morning in the newspaper John McCain ripped into Barack Obama, saying Obama supported “legislation ensuring ‘comprehensive sex education’ for kindergartners.”
Sounds like Obama passed a bill to give kindergartners a manual on how to have safe sex, but, in fact, the kind of sex education Obama was proposing – [...]
What happens if a candidate turns out to be so bad at being a candidate his campaign doesn’t dare let him loose on the public – say, because every time he opens his mouth the campaign totters on the brink of destruction?
The solution: A Stealth Candidate.
It’s an old tried [...]
I watched the first thirty minutes of the Perdue vs. McCrory debate. The “Thriller from Manila” it was not. About the time I was ready to doze off, McCrory, self-righteously praising himself, said, ‘I have never run a negative ad.’ That woke me up. I hate it when a candidate [...]
Not long ago a School Board member railed at the Wake County Commissioners by saying they were about to destroy world-class schools in Raleigh.
Well, the County Commissioners can stop trying. The No Child Left Behind Act has done it for them. Now, I know No Child Left Behind is [...]
Since Obama disposed of Hillary it’s become clear that in order to crush him McCain must resort to The Big Negative. Obama’s got too much momentum and money and charisma for McCain to waltz into office by way of a friendly popularity contest.
Well, Wednesday the old admiral – or the [...]
I’m not sure what’s worse: ‘International Celebrity’ Barack Obama not visiting wounded soldiers in Germany – or watching John McCain jump up and down and howl about it.
This saga in American politics started bad and went downhill.
Obama tripped over his own feet, then tripped again getting up, then McCain [...]
