newsobserver.com projects - Jimmy Carter - Comments

Re: Inspiration and poison

WilmingtonDemocrat — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:46:18 -0400

Pearce - Carville

that was 17 years ago - old school - before the internet - there been 2 presidents and 2 governors elected since then

why don't we listen to Les Robinson tell us about college basketball

Re: Inspiration and poison

jlpe1969 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:09:25 -0400

If you've never heard of Gary Pearce, then you can't be that involved with NC Dems. Pearce has been around for decades. He has been involved with nearly every major political campaign in the state and many national campaigns--many within the past 5 years. If you watch the documentary on the Clinton campaign you can hear James Carville speaking to Pearce about trying to ensure Clinton would win NC. He is the go-to guy for politics.

Re: Inspiration and poison

captsfufp — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:14:06 -0400

Maybe I'm not "Raleigh" enough, but why does UtD keep quoting this gentleman? As someone very involved in the NC Democratic Party...I've never even heard of this gent.

Re: Inspiration and poison

WilmingtonDemocrat — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 17:12:06 -0400

Can't we hear from someone who has been in a political race this decade?

Re: Wake commissioner to have prime seat

sutraquio — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:02:11 -0500

I am highly blessed to be a Black American(Black not of African descent),and be able to witness the inauguration of the first Black American to the office of the President of the United States of America.The major reasons that I voted for Barack were, not because he is Black but because of his character,his ideology,and his intellectual ability to solve this country's problems.Of course,he initiates the proposals and Congress must then take his ideas under consideration for approvals.Beyond this the President will be able to exhibit other powers which he deems necessary.We should realize that Barack inherits a wealth of pre-existing problems and must be given time and space to find and incorporate solutions to the debris of the past.

It is quite an honor for these dear and highly-esteemed veterans and those others who have passed on to be recognized and included in the grand inaugural ceremony of our new President.

Re: Past political patrons for U.S. attorneys

GrayJ — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:52:32 -0500

I believe its worth noting Sam Currin was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison in 2007, for money laundering and obstruction charges.

Re: The case for McCain in N.C.

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:40:40 -0400

Fair enough. I changed the wording. The point was that it's easy to overstate the influence of relocated Yankees (which includes myself!).

— RTB

Re: The case for McCain in N.C.

TomJensen — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:36:06 -0400

Do you really believe this statement 'the vast majority of the state's voters are still native conservatives' could be even hypothetically true?

PPP did a study over the summer about changing demographics in the electorate. We found about 55% of people voting in the state are natives. Let's go on the very high end and say two/thirds of those people are conservatives. That would put the electorate at about 37% native conservatives (I'd say 25-30% is a more realistic figure.) That is not a 'vast majority.'

Junior Johnson

James_Protzman — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 12:19:48 -0400

blogging at BlueNC for Barack Obama.

Re: McCain: An election like any other

kandinsky — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 12:59:10 -0400

Bill Clinton urged voters to consider Four Points in choosing a President:

* Philosophy - Obama's organizing philosophy is that America works from the ground up, not from the top down.

* Policy - Obama's policy ideas on the economy, education, health care, and energy are right for America now.

* Decision - Obama has demonstrated superior decision-making skills, e.g., his choice of Biden for VP, and his careful informed response to the financial crisis.

* Execution - In organizing and conducting an historically successful election campaign, Obama has demonstrated key talents as an executive.

... Clinton asked people to present these four ideas to voters until Election Day.

Re: Press Limitations in N.C.

Proctor — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:30:03 -0400

Journalists from other states ought to make sure they maintain their home-state connections while covering politics in North Carolina because the Democratic Party of this state has a sordid record of limitation of freedom of the press for writers who do not support the proper "ltef-liberal" wing of the national and state Democratic parties.

Around here in Raleigh and Durham, the sort-of-liberal wing of our Democratic Party loves to try to please the supposedly liberal branches of the national Democratic Party in Texas and in the Northeast and New England, even if it means limiting the publication of editorial essays in support of the Democratic candidate for governor of North Carolina, Bev Perdue.

So the end result of our Democratic Party's meddling with constitutionally protected press liberties has resulted in a whole slew of newspaper editorials in favor of the Republican candidate for governor.

Although our own home state's Democratic Party deserves the major responsibility for this unhealthy state of literary and journalistic affairs, some of the "credit" must also go to certain Democratic Party organizations in the Northeast, which managed to convince our political, educational and journalistic establishment in the Triangle years ago that our own North Carolina writers should play a lot of second fiddle when it comes to writing about politics, education and government here in North Carolina.

The extent to which certain operatives of both the state and national Democratic parties will go to make life miserable personally for Tar Heel writers unwilling to follow this nebulous left-liberal party line in their own independent research and editorial work is one of the great untold stories in American journalism today.

Because certain outstanding journalists--such as David Brinkley, Charles Kuralt and Tom Wicker--went from their native North Carolina to important positions at leading national press organizations such as NBC, CBS and The New York Times, now the conventional wisdom is that the Democratic Party, in dubious "arrangements" with certain local organizations of the Republican Party in cities such as Charlotte, ought to try to exercise harsh, unrelenting editorial control over the work of writers and editors in the Old North State.

Only in "liberal" North Carolina is it possible to go 30 years under the poverty line trying to earn an honest livelihood in journalism-related endeavors free from direct intervention or even censorship by the "progressive" wing of the national and state Democratic parties.

David P. McKnight

Re: "The Old North State"

Proctor — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:42:56 -0400

Oops--In my previous post, make that judge and songwriter William Gaston, who penned "The Old North State."

D. McKnight

Re: Talking Heads Talking Points

Proctor — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:40:53 -0400

Of course, some of us think that North Carolina is really a blue state which has been on another one of its traditional extended Rip Van Winkle naps as occurred in the 19th Century.

And besides Andrew Jackson (Union County, N.C. and Nashville, Tenn.), James K. Polk (Mecklenburg County, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn.) and Andrew Johnson (Raleigh, N.C., and Greeneville, Tenn.), don't forget Vice President Rufus King of Alabama, a native of Sampson County, N.C. Of course, we should perhaps remember him as Vice President-Elect King since he died of an illness before Inauguration Day.

Here's to our judge and songwriter, William Gaston of New Bern, who penned "The Old North Carolina":

"Hoorah, hoorah, the Old North State forever,
"Hoorah, hoorah, the Old North State."

Gastonia and Gaston County, N.C., are named in honor of William Gaston as is the community of Gaston in Northampton County, N.C., just south of the Virginia line.

Thanks to Joe the Candidate--Joe Felmet, the former Winston-Salem Journal newspaperman who entered the field of candidates in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in 1978, we often sang Gaston's "The Old North State" at campaign forums and meetings that year, so the song is anything but forgotten on the highways and byways of the--er, the Old North State.

David P. McKnight

Re: Talking Heads Talking Points

jjsmith2 — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 15:16:03 -0400

Please don't call us the Tar Heel State. It's too close to that curse word Tarheel.

Re: Mailer ties Hagan to Carter

scharrison — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:28:15 -0400

And again (x3), Freedom's Watch doesn't give a hoot about energy, immigration, Fannie, Freddie or Chili Mac. They only care about waging war:

http://www.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=216

"Freedom's Watch targeting Iran

After successfully holding the line on Congressional support for the surge in Iraq, wealthy Bush backers are turning their attention and money to drumming up support for military action against Iran.

If the U.S. undertakes military action against Iran, you can credit such longtime neoconservatives as Norman Podhoretz, William Kristol, Michael Ledeen and the swarm of ideologues buzzing about Washington's right wing think tanks. You can also credit Pastor John Hagee and his Christians United for Israel, a Christian Zionist outfit with unbending support for Israel. And credit also the billionaire and multimillionaire founders of Freedom's Watch for helping smooth the way.

While supporting the surge in Iraq was its first public campaign, Freedom's Watch has another target in mind: Iran.

In late September, the group ran a newspaper advertisement calling Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "a terrorist."

"If you look at how Iraq was sold to the American public, a number of pro-war groups and committees of the same ilk and backing had meetings at the White House, embarked on policy discussion tours around the country with media, and appeared as experts on news shows," Stauber pointed out.

"It should be remembered that Freedom's Watch is run by a White House PR flack [Ari Fleischer] who was key to selling that last war. It is the same script, same images, same messages, and same players. And it is likely to provoke the same response from the mainstream media."