Rob Schofield

This one from Rob Schofield ... ripped off in its entirety without permission.

An open letter to the Governor-elect

Dear Governor-elect Perdue:

It's been pretty crazy around here the last three weeks. What with the economic meltdown, the dramatic change in Washington and then the state budget shortfall and all of the news surrounding your soon-to-be administration here in Raleigh, some of us progressives have forgotten our manners.

We launched right into a series of critiques of your campaign and your initial statements and actions after the election without even taking a step back and saying some basic things that need to be said. Sorry about that. This can happen when you care a lot - or as one conservative Republican lawmaker told us the other day in a rather strange email, "have such hatred in your heart." (We don't actually, and will try to take the attack as a compliment).

Anyway, we never congratulated you on your victory. You beat two formidable and accomplished politicians in a pair of tough, hard fought campaigns. In a year that everyone agreed was about "change" you figured out a way to win as a familiar figure running on a statewide ballot for the third consecutive election.

It's not often that business books have tight relevance to political and cultural issues, but The Strategy Paradox by Michael Raynor has much to recommend it. Here is my interpretation of the essence of Raynor's argument:

Given that the future is fundamentally unknowable, how can we determine the proper course of action at any point in time? The answer lies in the concept of "strategic flexibility."

At any point in time, there are possible actions that, if chosen, will support almost any possible future that emerges. Those core actions are the relatively safe bets that should be chosen.

Map now updated with Myers Park Pat!

I admit to spending less and less time worrying about the "reports" and political activities spewing steadily from the Art Pope Puppetshow. Funded to the tune of $3 to $4 million annually by the knight of the right, the increasingly irrelevant John Locke Foundation and Civitas appear to have attracted all the converts they're going to get.

But as our handy-dandy (and updated!) map of the Show suggests, the Puppetmaster has infiltrated major media outlets and at least one major university, so they are definitely worth keeping an eye on. Which is why I was so pleased to see this post by Rob Schofield at NC Policy Watch yesterday. It's a doozy.

It's one thing to engage in constructive debate with the opposition. But when that opposition behaves like the Fox News channel by distorting reality to fulfill its ideological agenda? Well that's a different kettle of fish.