Carolina Politics Online

Two current rankings mention the Carolinas prominently:

Clark Benson of Polidata Political Data Analysis predicts that each of the Carolinas will receive one new congressional seat, bringing South Carolina to seven and North Carolina to 14. Benson notes, however, that states such as Pennsylvania, Washington and California could overtake either Carolina.

Kimball W. Brace of Election Data Services uses three different models for his apportionment forecast. The two models that use short-term and midrange growth patterns - which he says may be more accurate, given recent housing market fluctuations - both show a new seat for both Carolinas, but the long-term model does not include either state.

For the most part, both analysts show states in the Northeast and Midwest losing seats to Texas, south Atlantic states and the Southwest, reflecting the nation’s southerly and westerly population shifts. One notable exception is Louisiana, projected to lose one seat after the large exodus from the state after Hurricane Katrina.

The Sun News

It is fairly definite that North Carolina will gain a seat.  This is the first I have heard of South Carolina, even though it has been growing.  People are leaving the old Rust Belt of the northeast and heading down south where there is sun, jobs, and better economies.  The New Deal policies of the north have failed and the growth in large states like New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio have been slowing to a crawl.  The low tax, business friendly environment of the southeast and southwest are welcoming a whole new generation to our states to share in and continue to build the newly found prosperity.

GRAHAM VOTES ‘YES’

Graham, a Seneca resident seeking election to his second term in November, cited the $4 billion for new community development grants as being among a half-dozen positive features in the housing-aid legislation. The bill also provides a $7,000 tax credit, over two years, for buying a foreclosed home. It offers a standard property tax deduction for taxpayers who don’t itemize on their IRS returns.

“While not a perfect package, this bill will hopefully provide short-term relief to homeowners facing foreclosure and flexibility to lenders to renegotiate loan terms,” Graham said.

DEMINT SAYS ‘NO’

DeMint didn’t see it that way.

“This bill needlessly spends billions of dollars to bail out lenders, makes our tax code more complex and will do little to stimulate our economy,” he said. “In fact, this bill could have the perverse effect of increasing the number of foreclosures and reducing home values.”

The State

The one thing the news tends to leave out is that a lot of these foreclosures are investors, not primary home owners. These are people that bought these houses in order to upgrade them and then flip them in a short period of time and walk away with a $50,000 profit in their hands. It was a good way to make money while the housing market was simmering up, but now that the bubble has burst these people are feeling the pain of the risk they took. Why should we bail them out? As for the people who bought as primary home owners, they took the responsibility for buying more than they could afford and they need to sink with their decision.

As usual, DeMint is standing on principle and Graham is taking the populist road, whoring himself for votes in the upcoming primary.

Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday that he regrets his choice of words when he recently described economically distressed Americans as people who are “bitter” and who “cling to guns or religion.”

But he defended the underlying content of his remarks, which were the subject of blistering attacks yesterday from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

“Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that,” Obama said in a phone interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. “But the underlying truth of what I said remains, which is simply that people who have seen their way of life upended because of economic distress are frustrated and rightfully so.”

The Winston-Salem Journal

These people that Obama describes make up a good portion of both Carolinas. What a way for him to improve his odds of winning the states in November. His own words here are telling. “Obviously, if I worded things in a way that made people offended, I deeply regret that.” Notice that Obama doesn’t apologize for saying what he said. He apologizes for saying it in a way that offended people. In other words, he confirms his elitist views on middle America, the very people whose votes he will need to win the White House. Obama meant what he said. What he regrets is that he was too honest about it.

RALEIGH - A Republican state representative has been charged with driving while impaired in his Moore County district.

State Rep. Joe Boylan of Pinehurst drove his 1999 Ford pickup truck over the center line, off the left side of the road and into a ditch before striking a tree Thursday night in eastern Moore County, Sgt. T.C. McNair of the state Highway Patrol said.

Boylan was treated at FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst. The Highway Patrol charged him with driving left of center and DWI.

Reached by phone Saturday night, Boylan said he failed to negotiate a curve.

The News & Observer

Look, we’ve all driven a little tipsy before. I’ve done it. You only need a couple of drinks to get a slight buzz. However, to actually cross the line and go over the other side of the road you have got to be blitzed out of your mind. There were a few times when I was younger where I drove home after a night of heavy drinking and even in those instances I was still able to drive within the lines, so Boylan had to be totally shit-faced. He’s apologized for the “mistake.” I guess we’ll see on Election Day if the voters accept it.

MOYOCK — U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones said Saturday that he continues to oppose Navy plans to study a site in Camden for a jet airfield. The congressman also said he doesn’t think the county site will be seriously considered for the project.

However, Jones declined to commit now to opposing federal funding for the OLF if the Camden site is ultimately selected.

Read more from The Daily Advance

On education, a central theme for Democrats every election year, Nielsen departs from the usual party positions.

He wants parents to be able to use public money to educate their children in private schools. Most people call this a voucher system, but he prefers to call it parent choice.

Schools are failing children, Nielsen said, because they are geared toward sending students to college and ignore technical education that could lead to high-paying jobs.

“I believe the school system is broke,” he said at a candidate forum in Durham. “We have a generation of children we have lost and we may not ever recover them.”

Charlotte Observer

I have always been of the belief that if you want to take your child out of the public school system you should be exempt from paying taxes to the school, whether you want to send them to a private school or home school them. Of course, I think the only people that should be paying for the public schools are the ones that have kids in them in the first place. This idea that the entire citizenry has to fork over their money for a failed product that a lot of them don’t use is inherently anti-capitalist.

He wants to eliminate property taxes for people over 65 with incomes less than $40,000 a year. He proposes an end to forced annexation by cities and towns.

This I do not agree with. I am all for lower taxation at any level, but I am not supportive of these select exemptions. If every senior citizen were to be exempt from paying property taxes that will drastically raise the taxes of everyone else in the community. It will be the working parents and their children that will have to shoulder the burden. That doesn’t cut it. Senior citizens are the wealthiest age group in this country. They don’t need to be pushing their share of the tax burden on the rest of us. If they are struggling then their family can pitch in. That’s what my family does with my 90 year old grandmother.

These two issues are just what the Observer covered, but Nielsen has a whole Web site of changes he envisions for the state. He has a lot of good ideas, but I don’t honestly understand why he is bothering to even run. He isn’t running to win. You can’t win a gubernatorial race just on word of mouth without raising money. That method might work if we had a voting populace that actually researched the candidates before they went to vote, but that simply doesn’t happen. People make their decisions based on name recognition and 30 second TV ads.