Archive for 2011
Perdue Upside Down
Bev Perdue’s poll numbers have been upside down – meaning her ‘unpopularity’ is greater than her ‘popularity’ – almost since the day she took office. Twenty-seven years ago Jesse Helms faced similar ‘upside down’ poll numbers; his pollster Arthur Finkelstein gently explained the root of the problem was what he called a ‘character issue.’…
Read MoreMarc of OBX
Let others talk about what Marc Basnight did for the university system, clean water, open records, the Democratic Party, etc., etc. Those of us who love and live on the Outer Banks have selfish reasons to thank him. When Governor Hunt put Marc on the Board of Transportation in 1977, getting to Nags…
Read MoreThe Wait Is Almost Over
We’ve waited nearly 30 years, but it’s finally here. Thirty years ago this month, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. He said government was the problem, not the solution. He promised that – finally – someone would really, really cut government spending. We’ve waited. And waited. And waited. Reagan didn’t cut anything big. Nor…
Read MoreHomeless Blue Dogs?
The N&O front-pager about “North Carolina’s three conservative Democrats” – Congressmen Heath Shuler, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre – asks whether there’s a place for Blue Dogs in today’s Democratic Party. For perspective, I turn as always to my work on Jim Hunt’s biography. (I can’t help it; I spent four years on it.…
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