Senator Doug Berger’s World

Senator Doug Berger probably never dreamed anyone would run TV ads in his district telling his constituents how he voted to cut 20,000 elderly Medicaid patients’ home care then, eight days later, turned around and voted to build a $25 million fishing pier at the beach — with a sixteen thousand square foot clubhouse and…

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Big Spenders

Polls suggest that President Obama is losing independents who are concerned about federal spending and rising debt. In North Carolina, Governor Perdue and Democratic legislators fear the political consequences of the coming combination of budget cuts and tax increases.   Democrats don’t need to panic yet. The honeymoon had to end, and Obama had to…

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Strange

Ironic news juxtaposition: Monday was the deadliest day in a year for America military forces in Afghanistan. Seven dead. And Robert Strange McNamara died.   When McNamara became president of Ford and then JFK’s Secretary of Defense in rapid succession, all Washington marveled at the power of his intellect. Lyndon Johnson thought McNamara was so…

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Crab Pots

This afternoon an email flies in over the transom: The states broke and Governor Perdue’s been forced to call for a $1.6 billion tax increase.   An hour later another email flies in over the transom: The Department and Health and Human Services has just had to make an emergency appropriation for ‘items needed by…

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McCain’s Folly

Nearly a year later, we now see how reckless John McCain was to pick Sarah Palin for Vice President.   Suppose McCain had won. Suppose he had died in office or become incapacitated. The woman who made that incoherent and incomprehensible statement last week – so strange it made Mark Sanford look sane – would…

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The New Ad Wars

Two “issue” ad campaigns caught my eye this week. They show where this kind of media strategy is going.   One ad was about U.S. Senator Kay Hagan and the others, state Senator Doug Berger.   When I first saw the ad about Hagan, I thought: She’s already running a campaign ad? It sounded just…

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A Red Corvette

As good as our Democratic politicians here in North Carolina are at providing us with scandals…the Academy Award this year is going to South Carolina’s Governor.             Nobody’s seen anything like what’s going on ‘South of the Border’ since Sherman burnt Columbia.             See if you can figure this out:   The Governor went to…

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Perdue in Command?

Back when Lauch Faircloth was a Democrat in Jim Hunt’s Cabinet (pre-1984), he liked to say a governor had to have “command presence.”   Governor Perdue’s poll numbers may be low because the public does not see that quality in her today.   Speaker Joe Hackney had what struck me as a might chilly reaction…

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Passings

Could there be three more quintessential American stories than Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Billy Mays?   Jackson was the Elvis Presley of his day. He and Elvis were racial crossovers, bringing black music into white America. Someone told me Jackson was the first black performer on MTV back in the days when the network…

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Laughs

Two of the best lines I’ve heard this week re John Edwards and Mark Sanford:   “The definition of narcissism is thinking you’d look good in a sex tape.”   “Now we know why Mark Sanford rejected the federal stimulus package. He already had all the stimulus he needed.”

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