Christensen: "I have been underestimated for years. I have done very well that way." - Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Modified: 11/15/09 06:03:25 AM
Christensen:
The first sign of trouble for Democrats occurred in August when 600 people showed up outside the Raleigh office of Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller demanding a meeting on health care.
Modified: 11/08/09 04:13:18 AM
During a state Senate debate years ago, a frustrated "Uncle Ralph" Scott, the plain-spoken brother of one governor and the uncle of another, put it bluntly: "I don't know the smooth language lawyers use, but somebody's lyin'."
Modified: 10/31/09 08:52:02 PM
Christensen:
Larry Leake was doing his best Sen. Sam Ervin imitation this week as he presided over the hearings into whether former Gov. Mike Easley broke campaign finance laws.
Modified: 10/30/09 11:26:52 PM
Christensen:
While the investigation of former Gov. Mike Easley has created a sensation in the state capital, 39 years ago there was nearly as much scrutiny over then-Gov. Bob Scott.
Modified: 10/29/09 11:41:54 PM
Christensen:
It was a confident, self-assured Mike Easley who showed up for the hearing Wednesday in the Clarion Hotel in downtown Raleigh, just two blocks from the governor's office in the Capitol that he left in January.
Modified: 10/29/09 07:21:48 PM
Christensen:
The lid of the state Capitol dome has been peeled back this week. The State Board of Elections has the crowbar and flashlight, and the political operatives are scurrying for cover.
Modified: 10/28/09 05:01:12 AM
Christensen:
After having spent much of his life as the hunter, former Gov. Mike Easley is the prey.
Modified: 10/27/09 04:38:15 AM
Christensen:
N.C. State University Chancellor Jim Woodard made a striking prediction last week: In coming years, the soon-to-be built futurist James B. Hunt Library will join the Bell Tower as one of the two signature structures on the West Raleigh campus.
Modified: 10/24/09 10:19:26 PM
Christensen:
Gov. Beverly Perdue engaged in political theater Thursday when she suggested she might defy the courts, going to jail if necessary, to stop 20 murderers and rapists from being released next week from North Carolina prisons.
Modified: 10/22/09 11:52:27 PM
Christensen:
Was the Republican-backed sweep of the Wake County Board of Education elections a sign of larger political changes?
Modified: 10/11/09 04:06:11 AM
Christensen:
Wake County's 38-year effort to keep its school system racially and economically balanced may have been living on borrowed time.
Modified: 10/08/09 05:14:47 AM
Christensen:
If last year's election was like watching the Super Bowl, this year's election is like watching bowling.
Modified: 09/26/09 09:00:16 PM
Christensen:
The late Sen. Jesse Helms would be right at home amid the recent swirl of charges of socialism.
Modified: 09/22/09 01:10:11 AM
Christensen:
Byron Bunch, a character in William Faulkner's famous 1932 novel "Light in August," may offer one explanation why the Democrats' health-care proposal has run into a buzz saw of opposition even though many people are unhappy with the current system.
Modified: 09/22/09 01:30:46 AM
Christensen:
Ted Kennedy and Jesse Helms were the polar opposites of American politics -- the very mention of their names caused neck veins to bulge and spittle to form upon lips.
Modified: 09/22/09 07:32:00 AM
Rob Christensen:
Like then-Gov. Gardner, she says state must reinvent itself Governor says once again it's time to remodel government.
Modified: 09/22/09 07:34:16 AM
When "Miss Amy" Womble hobbled to the front of the room at Jonesboro Heights Methodist Church in Sanford to speak one day in 1965, the angry crowd fell silent.
Modified: 09/22/09 12:59:07 AM
If North Carolina's Republican nominee for governor were chosen in a party convention or caucus, Bill Cobey would likely dominate the way "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" swept this year's Oscars.
Modified: 09/22/09 12:55:12 AM
Reflecting on his recent quest for the White House, U.S. Sen. John Edwards mentioned his former colleague and fellow Raleighite in less-than-flattering terms.
Modified: 09/22/09 01:25:22 AM
Fortunately for Patrick Ballantine, North Carolina has a history of picking governors who still have all their hair and most of their teeth and can still see their feet. Jim Holshouser was 38, Jim Hunt and Bob Scott were 39 and Terry Sanford was 43 when they were first elected governor.
Modified: 09/22/09 01:37:18 AM
Dick Cheney was shocked when the president took a whupping in North Carolina.
Modified: 09/22/09 01:34:13 AM
Dear President Bush, Was it something we said? Do we need to take a breath mint?
Modified: 09/22/09 01:29:20 AM
'Scum" is how U.S. Sen. Furnifold Simmons of New Bern described the immigrants from eastern and southern Europe during the early 20th century.
Modified: 09/22/09 12:59:08 AM
The great guessing game in Democratic circles these days is whether there will be two Johns at the podium at the party's national convention in Boston in July.
Modified: 09/22/09 01:34:12 AM
Modified: 09/22/09 01:29:47 AM
Modified: 09/22/09 01:39:36 AM
John Edwards failed in his White House bid, but few who know the North Carolina senator expect him to exit from the national stage. Edwards put a coda on his campaign before a packed gymnasium Wednesday at Broughton High School. But in a nearly three-year quest for the White House, Edwards impressed Democratic activists, political leaders and experts as a talented campaigner and a rising national figure.
Modified: 09/22/09 08:03:56 AM
North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has reached the end of the road on the presidential campaign trail -- traveling farther than many thought possible, but stopping far short of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. On the grueling road from Des Moines to Atlanta, Edwards impressed voters as a fresh face, an optimistic voice and a promising figure in national Democratic politics.
Modified: 09/22/09 08:04:13 AM
The images that have flickered across Tar Heel TV screens during the political campaigns of the past two decades have been scary enough for one of those slasher, Texas chainsaw massacre movies.
Modified: 09/22/09 12:59:30 AM