A Conundrum

Mitt Romney’s running an ad that shows Barack Obama saying, If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that, and it sure looks and sounds and smells like the truth but Obama says there’s not a word of truth in it – that Romney edited a piece of video of his speech, took what…

Read More

Grabby GOP

Republican legislators may be anti-government, but they’re obviously not anti-grabbing government goodies for themselves.   Ex-Rep. Stephen LaRoque ran a program that received federal money. Now he faces federal charges of money laundering and theft from the program. Among those who got money from him are two Republican colleagues: former Senator Debbie Clary and Rep.…

Read More

Unintended Consequences

Republicans in the state legislature cut Planned Parenthood’s state funding by $125,000 but, to give the devil its due, in the blink of an eye Planned Parenthood turned a cut into a three-fold blessing by persuading the Obama Administration to give it $426,000 – as one Republican legislator said, I guess we can thank our…

Read More

One, Two, Three

One: Representative Stephen LaRoque was indicted. Two: Speaker Thom Tillis advised LaRoque to resign. Three: LaRoque didn’t. Four:  Tillis appointed a bi-partisan committee to investigate. Five:  LaRoque resigned. One. Two. Three. No deals. No double-talk. No dodging. Scandal over.  

Read More

Mitt’s Horses**t

It’s one thing for Mitt Romney to dis the Brits at their Olympics. It’s another thing altogether to distance himself from his wife’s role in the Olympics. Together these are disturbing signs of a man who doesn’t want us to see who he really is.   Romney’s disastrous NBC interview in London got attention mostly…

Read More

Fast Food Politics

Two of my guilty pleasures are Snoopy’s hot dogs and Chick-Fil-A. So what’s a good Democrat to do when the Snoopy’s owner attacks President Obama and Chick-Fil-A’s owner condemns gay marriage?   I’m reminded of McDonald’s some years back. The founder and owner, Ray Kroc, was a big buddy and big contributor to Richard Nixon.…

Read More

Context, Please

A Democrat concerned about Obama’s allegedly anti-small business statement (“you didn’t build that”) asks: “What did he really say? The quote sounds bad.”   It does indeed, and Republicans have jumped all over it.   Obama made the statement on July 13, in a campaign speech in Roanoke, Va. Here’s the full quote:   “If…

Read More

Dueling Polls

The Republican (Civitas) poll says Pat McCrory leads Walter Dalton 47-37. The Democratic (N.C. Citizens for Progress) poll says McCrory’s lead, once 12 points, has been cut in half – from 46-34 in April to 45-39 in July.   So what does this really tell us?   First, McCrory’s five-year campaign has given him an…

Read More

Who’s Our Competition?

Pat McCrory and Walter Dalton are debating whether North Carolina lost its competitive edge.  The question is: Who are we competing with? And is competition just about taxes?   Rob Christensen’s N&O story Sunday asked whether we’re still a “Dixie Dynamo.” But some people who work in economic development think that’s too narrow. We’re not…

Read More

Sticking to Our Guns

Gun rights vs. gun control: Except for race, it is the starkest divide in America today.   The Batman killings revived the familiar debate. One side says, “When are we going to do something about the easy availability of guns and bullets in America?” The other says, “If somebody had been packing a gun in…

Read More