Archive for October 2007
Run, Kay, Run
Even before Jim Neal outed himself, Kay Hagan was looking at getting back in the U.S. Senate race. Now she’s getting more encouragement – from home and from Washington. Hagan, a state senator from Greensboro, had looked at running earlier. She pulled back because Senator Charles Schumer from New York, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial…
Read MoreGood PR, Bad PR
I watch “60 Minutes” Sunday nights to see who shines and who fades in the close-up TV glare. The results are often surprising. Valerie Plame and Erik Prince, to take two examples. I was predisposed to like Plame, the outed CIA agent. After all, she’s taken a blowtorch to the Bush Administration. And she looks…
Read MoreMr. Peepers Gets Gored
As if Robert Escamilla – the ‘Mr. Peepers’ of Enloe High School – didn’t have enough problems after being demoted and publicly tarred and feathered by School Superintendent Del Burns, now, School Board Chairman Rosa Gill, lowering her head, has charged right over him too. Mrs. Gill feels that the students and parents questioning Superintendent…
Read MoreMr. Peepers in the Soup
Robert Escamilla is a 21st Century version of ‘Mr. Peepers.’ A bit shy. Awkward. Eccentric. And for eighteen years a diligent social studies teacher who received glowing reports from his superiors at Enloe High School. Until a few months ago, he had only one ripple on his resume with the potential to rock the waters…
Read MoreThe Colbert Factor
Since Bill Clinton blew his sax for Arsenio Hall, presidential candidates have been using TV talk-show hosts. Now a TV personality is turning the tables. Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central says he’ll run in South Carolina’s primary – as a Democrat and a Republican. This is no joke – to the candidates. Colbert, who is…
Read MoreIs Richard Moore too Negative?
Some Democrats are asking: Isn’t Richard Moore’s campaign too negative? Won’t he suffer a backlash for attacking Beverly Perdue? The answers are no and no. For nearly thirty years, since the onset of negative TV ads, I’ve heard the same arguments: “People won’t believe those attacks.” “Voters don’t like negative ads. You need to stay…
Read MoreOkie for Hillary
Merle Haggard of “Okie From Muskogee” fame has broken with the Republican Party. His reason: “they’re all about fear.” Fear of terrorists. Fear of illegal immigrants. Stirring fear – not inspiring hope – is the Republicans’ only hope for 2008. But I watched Democrats try to sell fear throughout the 1980s when Ronald Reagan was…
Read MoreHillary’s “Electability”
Speaking of Hillary, her opponents and detractors are growing more frustrated every day. Obama is losing the fresh luster he once had. And Edwards is reduced to arguing electability: that he’s the only Democrat who can carry a red state. But I don’t think Democrats are looking for freshness or electability. They’re looking for a…
Read MoreGrowth
Just about everything people read and hear about growth in Raleigh is bad: The School Board can’t cope with growth, the Water Company can’t cope with growth, the streets are clogged, the politicians say they have to keep raising taxes and borrowing money to pay for growth. Growth has caused such a myriad of problems…
Read MoreRaising Cain
Raleigh’s developer community is already looking for a political savior. Looking overseas, in fact. They’re talking up Jim Cain, currently U.S. Ambassador to Denmark. Their scenario is that Cain returns from his pressing foreign-policy duties in Copenhagen, runs for mayor and restores what developers call “moderation” to City Hall. Not so fast. Cain would have…
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