Archive for August 2009
A Woman’s Prerogative
My wife is an unusual woman. She sets her course, steers by it, only rarely changes her mind and her wisdom is such that almost always – with the exception being when she slipped and married me – everything works out fine. On the other hand, we’ve all heard the old saying, It’s a…
Read More“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
Gene Robinson, the respected Washington Post columnist, got the blues the other day, so, to lift his spirits, he kicked Dick Cheney – ripping into ole Cheney for being a torturer, the father of black-ops prisons and generally making him out to be the worst villain of the Third Millennium. All that led me…
Read MoreHealth Care As We Know It
There is an echo of the old welfare debate in the health-care debate. But worse – for Democrats. Until Bill Clinton “ended welfare as we know it,” welfare was a huge political problem for Democrats. Big majorities of the public – black and white – objected to a program they believed took money from…
Read MorePassion Gap
In politics as in sports, motivation often separates winners from losers. In the health care debate now, conservatives and Republicans are far more motivated than Democrats and Obama supporters. The passion factor has flipped since the election. Then, dispirited Republicans stayed home. Impassioned Democrats lined up at the polls for weeks at the…
Read MorePost Mortem
The story of how the state budget got made and passed reads like a plot from a bad Gothic novel. On page one Governor Perdue is sitting, looking at last year’s budget and dreaming of all the new things she is going to spend money on this year; she dreams and dreams then adds…
Read MoreGood Luck Pearce Edwards
You’ll need it. Governor Perdue is bringing you from Washington State to save her administration. She may as well have painted a big target on your back. At least you’re from here. You’ll work for a governor who has a reputation for being tough on her staff – and erratic. You’ll be…
Read MoreWorth the Risk?
We’ve got a whale of a health care war going on – and it’s a pleasure to watch the Congressmen and Senators getting bearded in their own Town Hall Meetings. In Round One President Obama charged out of his corner and whipped everyone in sight; then, in Round Two, he unexpectedly got rocked back…
Read MoreBev Needs a Dick Morris
No, not the Dick Morris you see on Fox who apparently came unhinged from working for the Clintons. The Dick Morris who rescued Bill Clinton’s presidency after 1994. Governor Perdue needs somebody who will do what Morris did then: scour government agencies for a series of popular, bite-sized things she could do by executive…
Read MoreOld Gene Autry Movies
When I was nine years old my ten year old cousin Jennifer was an Amazon â she could hit a baseball, throw a football and run faster than any boy. When it came time to choose up sides there wasnât any question whether sheâd play with the boys. The only question was which side was…
Read MoreObamaScare
I’m not surprised Public Policy Polling found that only 54 percent on North Carolinians believe Obama was born in the United States, 26 percent said they do not believe he was and 20 percent aren’t sure. The poll reflects a fundamental divide about Obama here and across America. It was there throughout the campaign,…
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