Spectator-in-Chief
Pat McCrory just doesn’t get it. And I mean “get” being governor. He’s disengaged from the political process and living in a bubble that’s obliterated any understanding of how his administration is perceived by the public. This week, his office released a tax plan...
Underdogs
Americans love an underdog. They loved Rocky so much they had him boxing well into middle age. Seabiscuit gave the public something to cheer about during the Great Depression. And Jim Valvano’s ’83 “Cardiac Pack” thrilled fans far beyond the Triangle. In the world of...
Mad Hatters and Queens of Hearts
Over the years, I’ve developed a number of friendships with my counterparts on the other side of the political aisle, political professionals who work for Republican candidates or conservative causes. I also read, or at least peruse, Commentary Magazine, National...
Wrong side of history
After spending several days outside of the Triangle and talking to people who asked what the arrests in Raleigh were all about, I was going to write a blog, once again, urging the Moral Monday leaders to focus their message. I was also going to encourage them to lay...
Thinking small
North Carolina needs a serious conversation about what to do with the rural areas of our state. Since 2010, 47 of our 100 counties have lost population and the people who are left are old. Unemployment in many of our rural counties is still in double digits....
Fish in a barrel
In political campaigns, a good “hit” is an issue that is easily defined, clearly understood and quite obviously opposed to the best interest of the voters. It’s even better if it’s hard for the intended target to defend or explain. The Republicans have offered up so...
Siding with the Grinch
The N&O doubled down on their Bob Luddy-inspired attack on the Rural Center on the op-ed page, where the original series belonged, and a follow-up “news” article. The paper still has not identified Luddy or his motives. However, it defends not talking to grant...
Hatchet job
Well, N&O, you got played. You wandered into an ideological budget debate and did a hatchet job on the N.C. Rural Center. To call it poor journalism would be an insult to journalism. It’s quite clearly an opinion piece that started out with a point of view and...
Gloria
2595, 4660, 2341. They’re phone numbers and they keep running through my head. I memorized them at about the same time I learned my own. I dialed them so frequently, that almost fifty years later, I recall them without hesitation. Back then, I was calling friends to...
Pat McCrory: The interview
PoliticsNC: Governor, thanks for taking time to sit down with PoliticsNC. Pat McCrory: Well, thank you. Nothing I like more than a weekend chat. PNC: Governor, last week you described the protesters as “outsiders.” After an analysis of arrest records, it appears that...
