All That Mattered

A Washington Post reporter asked whether Republican legislators passed election laws to require voter I.D.s and limit early voting to keep African Americans from voting.   Back in 2010, before Republicans redrew the State House and Senate districts, there were 98 Democrats in the State Legislature.  After redistricting, there were 60.  Before redistricting, 33 African-Americans…

Read More

Hillary’s moment

To be great, politicians – like athletes, performers and mythic heroes – must rise to moments of great challenge. Hillary Clinton’s moment comes in Monday’s debate. The merciless beast Momentum has turned against her. It was with her for several weeks after the conventions. Then the media and the commentariat grew tired of talking about…

Read More

The Great HB2 Train Wreck

“Is HB2 the worst self-inflicted wound in the history of North Carolina politics?” That’s what a young whippersnapper asked at breakfast the other day. (When you’re my age, you get a lot of questions about history.) I couldn’t think of a worse one. Terry Sanford’s food tax? It hurt him politically, but Sanford didn’t push…

Read More

Police, protests and politics

Another police shooting of a black man. Another city ripped by unrest, protests and, the media says, “riots.” This time it’s Charlotte. This time Charlotte is in the news for something other than bathrooms. Carter’s blog on this, by the way, is thoughtful and insightful. I commend it to you. So often in cases like…

Read More

Riots and Campaigns

Yesterday two reporters asked me if the riots in Charlotte were going to have a ‘political impact.’  On the radio, while driving to work, I’d heard about the riots but hadn’t read any news reports and didn’t know the answer—then last night at home I turned on the television and the second night of riots…

Read More

McCrory vs Charlotte

Pat McCrory acts like the Queen City has become Queer City. Now, the city that made him may break him. He got elected because he had a reputation as a moderate, pragmatic, pro-business Mayor of Charlotte. He may lose reelection because he has a reputation now as a gay-bashing, bathroom-obsessed, bad-for-business Governor. He won in…

Read More

Correcting Mistakes

One poll question asked, Should transgender men be allowed to use women’s bathrooms? and another question asked, Do you support HB2?  and the answer to both questions was ‘No’ which sounds like a contradiction but isn’t: It’s a paradox – a case of voters saying to Republicans, We agree with what you set out to…

Read More

“What an asshole”

Dan Kane’s N&O series this week (“Carolina’s Blind Side”) shows anew that UNC leaders never learned The First Rule of Crisis PR. The rule: It’s the crisis. Not the PR. When you think it’s the PR, you ask, “How do we put this behind us?” When you recognize it’s the crisis, you ask, “What the…

Read More

50 days minus 1

Carter and I were interviewed by The Charlotte Observer Monday about the election outlook. So, instead of having to organize our thoughts and actually write something, we’ll just post the following story by the Observer’s editorial board, “50 days out, here’s what political experts think (and predict!) about N.C.’s biggest races”: We’re less than 50…

Read More

Blind Chance

The Washington Post recently published an article headlined: ‘Megalomaniac’ Trump vs ‘deceitful’ Clinton: How Virginia voters see the presidential race. The Post reported, according to a focus group of thirty undecided voters Donald Trump is “phony,” “crazy,” “arrogant,” “dumb,” “bigoted,” “self-centered,” and a “charlatan.” Hillary, the voters said, is “old,” “deceitful,” “a liar” and “slimy.”…

Read More