Archive for November 2012
The Biased Media?
Over on The Atlantic magazine’s website the liberal reporters were having a happy day after the election but not, as you’d expect, by celebrating Obama’s victory – instead, they were having a fine time ribbing conservative pundits from Ann Coulter to Karl Rove because they had said the polls that showed Obama leading Mitt Romney…
Read MoreRevenge of the Nerds
This election’s winners include not only data nerds like Nate Silver, but also the Obama campaign’s numbers-crunchers. Wasn’t data analysis supposed to be Romney’s strength at Bain and the Olympics? The Obama staff – parodied as a bunch of soft-headed, socialist community organizers – were precise and efficient in their targeting and resource allocation.…
Read MoreWhy Republicans Lost Nationally?
Last Tuesday, nationally, was a pretty fine day for Democrats: President Obama not only won, Democrats gained Senate seats, House seats, four states voted for gay marriage and two states voted for legalizing medical marijuana. Since the morning after the election the TV and newspaper pundits have been gesticulating furiously over who’s to blame…
Read MoreRed State Blues
Why was North Carolina a bright spot in an otherwise dark day for Republicans nationally? Were my Republican consultant friends – Carter, Luther Snyder, Tom Fetzer, Paul Shumaker and Jack Hawke – that much smarter than their colleagues across the country? Or was it just a weird confluence of circumstances: a governor’s race…
Read MoreClarifying Mysteries
Back in the enlightened 1970âs when I was in college the powers-that-be at UNC gave me a hard choice: They told me I could take either a foreign language or math, but I had to learn one or the other. It was a choice between two poisons. I took foreign language and promptly failed French,…
Read MoreBad Start, Pat
Yesterday I wrote nice things about Governor-elect McCrory. But his entrance onto the Raleigh stage this week wasn’t a good one. Look at it this way: McCrory has a strong brand in North Carolina right now. He just won big. He gets the benefit of the winner’s glow. He should milk that political capital.…
Read MoreWhy Democrats Lost in North Carolina
Democrats lived through about their worst election ever Tuesday night: Republicans whipped them in the races for Governor, Lt. Governor, elected three new Congressmen and gained seats in the State House and Senate – so how, post election, are Democratic pundits explaining their world falling apart? Here’s what they’re saying: ‘That darn Art Pope…
Read MoreCongrats, Pat
Pat McCrory may not like this, but he reminds me a bit of Jim Hunt. His speech Tuesday night talked about North Carolina’s reaching and exceeding “their full potential.” Since then he has talked about reaching out to Republicans and Democrats. During the campaign he boasted about working across party lines in Charlotte. He even…
Read MoreDivided We Stand
On the day after, we’re as split emotionally as we are politically. Democrats celebrate President Obama’s historic reelection. America has now twice elected a black man to the highest office. His win validates his policies: the stimulus, auto bailout and financial reform. Health care reform will survive. He will fill Supreme Court vacancies. He…
Read MoreHumorless
Albert, arguing, said, You’re wrong. Folks don’t care if politicians lie and steal – they expect them to do that. What’s more, they’ll vote for a crook who can fix the potholes in their street over a bungling saint every time. I chalked that up to an otherwise garrulous man’s streak of skepticism but…
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