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Entries for 'Gary Pearce'
Gary Pearce posted on February 27, 2013 08:15
Being mean is not a formula for success in politics, and Governor McCrory may learn that lesson the hard way.
Hold on, you say. What about Jesse Helms? He made a 30-year career out of being mean and picking on politically weak victims.
Glad you asked. Here’s the difference: What works for a Senator doesn’t work for a Governor.
With Helms, people thought: “There are 99 SOBs in the Senate. Let’s send them a real SOB.” After all, nothing really gets done in the Senate.
But voters know that a Governor makes decisions that can help – or hurt – real people.
Like not extending Medicaid to 500,000 people who don’t have health insurance – and might not get life-saving health care.
Like cutting unemployment assistance to people who can’t find a job and may have trouble providing for their families, while raising your Cabinet secretaries’ pay.
Like stigmatizing immigrants on license plates and making it hard for them to get an education for their children.
Now, the Governor is a likeable, affable fellow. But he needs to consider how politically vulnerable he might become if he starts looking like Jesse Helms with a smile – especially among moderate Independents.
Of course, this assumes those voters know what the Governor is doing. That’s the Democrats’ responsibility.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 26, 2013 10:28
Why do congressional Republicans keep jumping off the cliff – and taking the country with them? Don’t they see the political trap that President Obama has sprung on them?
You could enjoy what they’re doing to themselves politically if you didn’t hate what they’re doing to the country economically.
Here’s just part of the sequestration toll in North Carolina, according to theCharlotte Observer and News & Observer: “Hundreds of North Carolina teachers would lose their jobs, many families across the state would no longer get help with preschool or day care for their children, and 22,000 civilians who work for the military in the state would face pay cuts.”
Nationally, unemployment will go up. Economic growth will go down. The recovery from recession will be slowed.
Worst of all, lines at airports will get longer and slower. Now you’re talking a real crisis.
Republicans have convinced themselves – again – that their strategy is a winner. They are blinded by ideology. They hate government so much they thinks everybody hates it. They’re already forgotten how Obama won an election they were certain he would lose.
So Obama just goes up to bat every day and hits another one out the park on them.
One of two things is certain to happen at this rate: Republicans will eventually wake up and change, or they will get their brains beat in at the ballot box, and it won’t matter.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 25, 2013 10:46
Kim Genardo of NBC-17 is following a well-trod path from capital reporter to Governor’s communications director. Most every governor hires a capital reporter to tame the savages. I made that switch from the N&O to then-Lt. Governor Hunt in January 1976 – 37 years ago! (As I recall, I was about 13 years old.)
Two issues arise here – one past and one prospective. First, the past: Was she talking to the Governor about the job when, as the N&O noted Saturday, “she did a one-on-one interview with McCrory for WNCN 10 days ago”? If she was, she shouldn’t have done the interview. It puts her coverage in question.
Second, looking ahead: Which master will she serve – Governor or media?
It’s a tricky task. Some Governors think that, since you were one of them, you should have some kind of mojo that insures positive media coverage. But some journalists think you’ve sold out and gone over to the dark side.
Some hacks-turned-flacks turn into media scourges. They block reporters’ access to the great man, yell and scream at reporters who write tough stories and thereby poison the relationship.
I made my share of mistakes, but learned one big lesson: Your job is, in fact, to serve two masters. Yes, you work for the Governor, but your paycheck comes from the taxpayers of North Carolina and you have a unique responsibility to serve the public.
So you have to respect the role journalists play in getting information to the public, even if your boss and the people around him get mad. You have to help both sides: help the governor tell his story and help the reporters write their stories.
Fortunately, I had a boss who understood the role of the media, liked to read newspapers and watch the news and – most of all – didn’t hold a grudge. Oh, he got mad about stories. But he vented his anger with me, not them, and he was willing to talk to the reporter again. After all, there will be another paper and another broadcast tomorrow.
Governor Hunt also found that reporters’ questions alerted him to problems his own people wouldn’t tell him about. Never in history has a gubernatorial appointee volunteered: “Governor, you know that assignment you gave us? Well, we have made a total hash of it.”
So good luck, Kim. All you need is a cool head, a thick skin and a sense of humor.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 22, 2013 12:08
Oh my goodness gracious, Republicans are all aflutter and Twitter is all atwitter over a leaked memo by liberals to “attack…cripple…eviscerate” GOP leaders and even, worst of all, “mitigate the worst legislation.”
I haven’t heard so much caterwauling since Jesse Helms was screeching that Ted Kennedy, liberals, blacks and queers were attacking him so you better send money fast.
Of course, the best way to get anything reported and read is to stamp it “confidential” and caution all the recipients not to share it with absolutely anybody. Worked like a charm here.
Now, I don’t like using words like “attack, cripple and viscerate.” But that’s how excitable operatives talk to show how tough they are – Democrats AND Republicans. So pay no attention to the crocodile – or elephant – tears over how mean this is. Especially from people who demonize President Obama and called Governor Perdue “America’s dumbest governor.”
Along with the purple prose, I found some interesting information and ideas about how to fight what the plan-writers believe is bad public policy. That's called democracy and debate.
Between the lines I also read some welcome fight and focus.
To wit: “McCrory’s giving pay raises to Cabinet officials (high-level government bureaucrats) while trying to cut benefits for those who are doing their best to try to work hard emerges as the most salient line of attack against him….”
That’s good information to have – and to get to the voters.
So spare me the whining and the inevitable high-minded denunciations. Politics ain’t beanbag, as they say. If you’re not ready to get some mud and blood on your uniform, get off the field.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 21, 2013 15:18
Sarah Ovaska at NC Policy Watch reveals that one Republican legislator who voted to cut unemployment assistance was himself getting that assistance last year.
Rep. Jason Saine, a Lincolnton Republican, collected unemployment checks for 15 months while he was out of work. But now that he’s in the legislature, he voted with his GOP colleagues to slash unemployment aid for people who can’t find a job.
That’s right: he voted against letting other North Carolinians get the same benefits he got.
He says he voted for the cuts to get North Carolina out of debt. Here’s an idea: Why doesn’t he pay back the difference between what he got and what he voted for?
Saine lost his job in May 2010. Then, Ovaska wrote: “A stroke of luck came in August 2011, when the county Republican Party he chaired selected him to take over the legislative seat left vacant when former N.C. Rep. Johnathan Rhyne left the legislature to move to nearby Gastonia.”
Yes, he was picked for the seat by “the county Republican Party he chaired.”
Well, at least Republicans can say they created a job for one unemployed North Carolinian.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 20, 2013 08:47
What do Marco Rubio and Larry Hall have in common? They made the mistake of giving their party’s response to the State of the Union and State of the State speeches, respectively.
Inevitably, this ends up looking like a hostage tape or the speech given by the leader of space aliens who just invaded our planet: “PEOPLE OF EARTH, we come in peace….”
Both Senator Rubio and Rep. Hall did as well as they could under the circumstances. Their messages were perfectly fine and well-written.
It’s just that they were doing something that nobody – repeat, nobody – can do: Stare into a camera for 10 or 15 minutes (it seems longer) and keep the audience’s interest.
Listen to me again: Nobody does that. Do you watch television? Do you see anybody ever doing that? Not even the most polished entertainer would try it.
Plus, you’re in that artificial setting right after the audience watched the President or Governor performing in a live arena, surrounded by people who are clapping, frowning and otherwise acting like human beings.
It’s a lose-lose deal.
Worse, like Rubio, you end up being remembered only for wiping away sweat and awkwardly reaching for water while fixedly staring at the camera.
(When Governor McCrory reached over for a stack of papers Monday night, somebody tweeted: “I thought he was going for water.”)
Politicians, of course, have an ego that convinces them that the people of earth – or at least America or North Carolina – are eager to hear what they say. No. People change the channel, except for the people who either love you or hate you. You’re not going to win over the people who hate you, and you’re only going to embarrass the people who love you.
If you feel compelled to respond, sit down with an interviewer, answer their questions and look and sound like an actual human being.
And stop staring at me through the camera. You’re making me uncomfortable.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 19, 2013 08:55
Tea Party types must have gone into cardiac arrest last night when Governor McCrory said he’s “kind of an Eisenhower Republican.”
Just not as ambitious. Ike built the Interstate highway system; Pat wants to “fix the lights” on the Interstate. And, like Ike, he’s afraid to confront the Joe McCarthys in his party.
Still, “Eisenhower Republican” is an odd self-appellation in the Republican age of Ted Cruz and Ted Nugent. And McCrory’s speech struck me as not much different from every State of the State speech given by every North Carolina governor, Democrat and Republican, going back to – oops! – “Governor Householser.”
Most striking was what we didn’t hear: a call to dramatically slash taxes and downsize government. He did come out against “seat warmers,” but I wasn’t sure whether he was talking about legislators or car seats on cold mornings.
McCrory said tax reform should be “revenue neutral.” He wants more lottery money for education. Energy exploration, he promised, would mean more revenues so government could do more things.
It was a vision of expansionist government, not just efficient government. How does the Tea Party like that?
McCrory showed little passion, save when he talked about addiction and college-campus binge drinking. Certainly we all applaud that.
He sounded more like a mayor – or president of the homeowners’ association. His administration’s proudest accomplishment so far apparently is ending double-billing for tolls and apologizing to the “customers.” Very commendable.
And he doesn’t like people waiting an hour and a half at DMV. What about the long lines to vote?
Observers keep asking what kind of governor McCrory is going to be, like it’s some deep enigma. No, this is it. What you saw is what you get. He’s a pleasant, modestly ambitious man who wants to fix the lights and long lines – and a rubber stamp for whatever the right-wingers do in the legislature.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 18, 2013 10:27
The Economist notes: “North Carolina has a Republican governor, a conservative majority on the state Supreme Court and Republicans controlling both legislative chambers.” Plus, Republicans have nine of our 13 congressional seats. Plus, “It seems that Mr. McCrory, like his state, is turning right.” Witness his “bashing Agenda 21” and deriding “the educational elite.” Plus the rightward rush of the legislature.
But here’s the good news.
The Times magazine focused on the digital “obsolescence” of the Romney campaign and national Republicans. It quotes digital-minded young Republicans who believe “Democrats have overwhelmed Republicans with their technological superiority.”
They remind me of 1980s Democrats who thought we were losing just because Reagan and Republicans were masters of TV. It was much more than that, and so it is today. The digital divide, in fact, reflects a cultural divide that is rooted in Republicans’ image.
What’s that image? According to voters in their 20s: “Corporate greed, old, middle-aged white men, rich, religious, conservative, hypocritical, military retirees, narrow-minded, rigid, not progressive, polarizing, stuck in their ways, farmers.”
That explains why, as the Republicans operatives noted, “1.25 million more young people supported Obama in 2012 over 2008.” That also perfectly describes North Carolina Republicans today.
Yes, North Carolina Democrats have a long way to go. But they have a lot to work with.
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Gary Pearce posted on February 15, 2013 09:38
“We are being compassionate,” said state Rep. Mike Hager of Rutherfordton. “We have a mindset of pulling...government burden off these small businesses.”
Well, that sums it up. Republican compassion is for businesses and corporations, not people. Remember: People aren’t corporations, my friend.
First North Carolina Republicans slashed help for people who can’t find work. Then they slammed the door on people who can’t get insurance or health care. Now they’re raising income taxes on 900,000 taxpayers at the bottom of the pile.
You read it right: raising taxes. You see, tax cuts are reserved for those of us at the top – and corporations.
Rep. Julia Howard, chair of the House Finance Committee, defended it this way: “Our tax dollars are very sacred this year with a lot of things we need to do, and that is $105 million that we are literally writing checks for.”
You see, these taxes are “sacred.”
A businessman I know – no raving liberal – cornered me this week and demanded: “How can they go to church after cutting unemployment assistance by $200 a week?”
Apparently, it’s the gospel of “comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted.”
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Gary Pearce posted on February 14, 2013 10:47
After receiving a typically enthusiastic introduction from former Governor Jim Hunt Tuesday, Governor McCrory said, “Note to staff: Never have me speak after Jim Hunt again.”
Here’s another note he should send them: Know my audience.
McCrory was speaking at N.C. State’s Emerging Issues Form on manufacturing. He seemed to think he was speaking to a group of business people and manufacturing executives. The speech was spot on for that audience. But not for this one, which was mostly policy wonks – lobbyists, lawyers, educators, association executives and the like.
I don’t fault McCrory. But he should fault his staff. The first rule of speechwriting is: write to the audience – and make sure the speaker knows who they are.
That quibble aside, it was the first time I had a chance to measure McCrory as a public speaker.
He has one great strength: He’s likeable. Don’t underestimate that in a politician. (See: Mike Easley.)
What I couldn’t figure from his speech is what he really is: An affable front man for a radical ideology, or the model of a moderate, pro-business Charlotte Republican.
Either out of instinct or calculation, he distanced himself from Republican red-hots and from some of his and his administration’s fumbles.
He praised the value of a liberal arts college education “like the one I got.” In a bow to Hunt, he talked about the importance of pre-K education.
After saying why he opposed Medicaid expansion and a state insurance exchange, he said, “one thing I have to tell the politicians” – who might that be? – is that health care reform is the law of the land.
Clearly, this is a hard man to pin down. But in today’s polarized politics, that might be a strength – one Democrats shouldn’t underestimate.
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