December 19, 2008
Like most parents, Barack and Michelle Obama must arrange their lives around their children's school schedule. So they've got a problem. Their daughters are supposed to begin classes at Washington's Sidwell Friends School on Jan. 5, but Barack's new job...
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December 12, 2008
If I told you this column is about Greensboro developers trying to get residential property rezoned for office buildings and parking garages, you’d probably roll your eyes and say, “Well, they’re at it again!” I can’t blame you. My eyes often gl...
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December 5, 2008
A few weeks before President-elect Barack Obama named Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state, a Washington insider was overheard saying, "I'll bet Joe Biden will be disappointed if Hillary gets the job.'' When Barack Obama tapped Biden to be his ru...
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November 28, 2008
This is Black Friday, the day that officially launches the Christmas shopping season. Customers wake up before daylight to storm the doors of stores where wondrous bargains supposedly await them. At the risk of putting a damper on Black Friday, let's talk...
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November 21, 2008
Barack Obama does not walk on water. Neither is he a 21st-century Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Yet millions of Americans, egged on by the media, seem to be laboring under that illusion. A recent cover of Time magazine depicte...
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November 14, 2008
Are you weary of the interminable presidential election and eager to focus on other topics? If you're not entirely fed up, here are few footnotes about people who've been on the political margins. • First John Edwards, North Carolina's former U.S. sena...
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November 7, 2008
A few hours before the polls closed in North Carolina, I got a phone call from a childhood friend who lives in our native state of Alabama. She had been going door-to-door all day, urging people to vote for Barack Obama and offering them rides to the poll...
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October 24, 2008
A year ago it would have been unthinkable that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole would be fighting for her political life. But Dole is facing a skin-tight race against Kay Hagan, her Democratic challenger from Greensboro. And Hagan deserves to win.
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October 17, 2008
Barack Obama and John McCain agreed on at least one thing in Wednesday night's debate: The next president of the United States will have an enormous impact on who will sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. "Elections have consequences," McCain said, referring t...
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October 10, 2008
I got an e-mail from a reader the other day after I wrote a column saying Sarah Palin had neither the national nor international experience to be a heartbeat away from becoming president. The reader adamantly disagreed. "Sarah Palin is a fine Christian w...
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October 3, 2008
Thank heavens for Sarah Palin. If an era when too few Americans say they're reading newspapers, Palin reads 'em all. In her much-publicized interviews with CBS's Katie Couric, Palin was asked which newspapers and magazines informed her world view. Palin...
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September 26, 2008
As I boarded a plane last week on a sunny day in North Carolina, I carried a heavy raincoat in my arms and sweaters in my suitcase. My motto for traveling to Seattle, one of America's rainiest cities: Be prepared even if the seven-day forecast is for suns...
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September 19, 2008
When Sen. John McCain candidly admitted last year that he didn’t know much about economics, he probably spoke for millions of Americans. But now we’re getting a crash course in economics watching financial giants such as Bear Stearns, Lehman Broth...
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September 12, 2008
Until Sarah Palin arrived on the scene, John McCain's quest for the White House seemed flat as a pancake. Even now, McCain's audiences shrink unless Palin is beside him on stage. Then crowds lustily chant, "Sarah! Sarah!" Does being upstaged by Palin, 44......
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September 5, 2008
When Sarah Palin's father heard his daughter had been named John McCain's vice presidential running mate, he exclaimed in disbelief, "Holy cow!" My sentiments precisely. Even after her electrifying speech Wednesday night at the Republican convention, I wo...
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August 29, 2008
Two prominent women dominated the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week while a third, who had originally planned to be there, remained in seclusion in Chapel Hill. At center stage in Denver were Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. In seclusi...
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August 22, 2008
I was shopping this week at a local grocery store when I rounded a corner and bumped into a friend. I immediately yawned in her face. "You look tired," she said with concern. "It's because of my addiction," I replied, stifling another yawn. My addiction h...
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August 15, 2008
After I returned from Russia a few weeks ago, a friend asked about my itinerary. Our tour, I replied, took us from Moscow to St. Petersburg "but not down south to the Black Sea and Georgia." When I mentioned "Georgia," a puzzled look crossed the person's...
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August 8, 2008
If you want a quick illustration of how Russia has thawed since the end of the Cold War, look at the accompanying photo, the one of the rotund Russian soldier glaring at me. I snapped his picture recently in Moscow when I was touring the Kremlin, that vas...
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August 1, 2008
As I stood in Moscow's Red Square a few days ago, it brought back dark memories of the Cold War when Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and their ilk stood atop Lenin's Tomb ominously reviewing tanks, soldiers and missiles that paraded across Red Square. Today......
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July 25, 2008
Have you ever misplaced an item and emptied drawers, closets and filing cabinets, trying to track it down? One recent afternoon I was searching for file labeled "Russia." I'd kept it for years in a gray filing cabinet, the one I use for work. I wound up c...
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July 18, 2008
I heard the news last Saturday morning on National Public Radio. Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary, had died of colon cancer. He was 53. White House press secretaries come and go; some are forgettable, others memorable. Tony was decidedly...
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July 11, 2008
During the years that Jesse Helms served in the U.S. Senate, I was among the legion of columnists who vehemently criticized his right-wing rhetoric and policies. In various columns I described him as a bigot, a homophobe, a mossback and an international o...
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July 4, 2008
I was talking to a 10-year-old the other day about trains and planes and discovered one more big difference between her generation and mine. "Have you ever ridden on a train?" I asked. "No," she replied, "but I've flown on airplanes." When I was her age......
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June 20, 2008
SILER CITY -- This is a story about hard times in small-town North Carolina. It's also the story of Hispanics, who moved there to take low-paying jobs but who are now out of work. This is the story of a town that's hurting. The story begins when Siler Cit...
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