Free Republic

Hint: It wasn't extremism from Paul Ryan. Our friend Morgen Richmond goes back to the videotape of the September 2011 talk by Erskine Bowles at the University of North Carolina and finds a direct question from the floor about why the Simpson-Bowles plan went nowhere. After joking that he'd prefer not to answer, Bowles says, "I'll just tell you the truth." And the truth is that, despite delivering and even exceeding what Barack Obama and his economic team said they wanted from the President's own bipartisan advisory commission on deficit reduction and budget reform, Obama refused to champion it:CLICK ABOVE...

Numerous sources say Gov. Bev Perdue will not seek re-election in 2012. Perdue will turn 65 this month. Her likely opponent in the next campaign will be Pat McCrory, former Charlotte mayor and a Catawba College graduate. Sources at the Associated Press are working on a story at this time. The Raleigh News & Observer is reporting Perdue is expected to make an announcement this afternoon. The News & Observer is also reporting that Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton has about $600,000 in the bank, according to campaign finance reports. Others likely to make a run include current Charlotte Mayor Anthony...

If you listen to the lies spewing forth from the lips of the Obama Administration, the US economy is improving, millions of jobs are being “saved or created” and we’re well on our way to a strong recovery. But, the volatility of the numbers that Obama and economists in his pocket use to try and convince us that our financial situation is improving tell an entirely different story. Ex-Clinton Democrat and co-Chair of Obama’s so-called debt commission Erskine Bowles recently warned that our nation’s debt is a fiscal cancer that threatens to devour the nation from within, if left unchecked....

Here is video of Democrat Erskine Bowles on Fox News Sunday today where he said President Obama told him and former GOP Sen. Alan Simpson that, "Everything is on the table," as they do their work as Co-Chairs of his "bi-partisan Debt Commission," tasked with coming up with a report on how the solve the U.S. Debt problem. Fox News' Chris Wallace had asked Bowles if tax increases were on the table in light of Obama's pledge during the 2008 Campaign that he would NOT raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. Bowles said both cuts in...

Amidst the usual fanfare, President Obama signed the executive order deputizing Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson to head up his Debt Reduction Commission. "Without action, the accumulated weight of that structural deficit, of ever-increasing debt, will hobble our economy, it will cloud our future, and it will saddle every child in America with an intolerable burden," Obama exhorted the signing ceremony spectators. Of course, he is conveniently ignoring his own obese budget unveiled a few days before, while still cheerleading his party's grotesque cap-and-tax and health care monstrosities that have little hope of passage against daunting odds. Bowles and Simpson...

The chancellor and provost at N.C. State have been ordered to appear before a federal grand jury meeting in Raleigh this week, according to federal records released Tuesday afternoon. Chancellor James Oblinger and Provost Larry Nielsen were asked to bring documents related to the hiring, promotion and salary of former first lady Mary Easley. The subpoenas follow reports in The News & Observer about the circumstances surrounding Easley's hiring at N.C. State in 2005 and the expansion of her duties last year, which raised her pay to $170,000. Mary Easley has come under pressure to resign her position from Oblinger...

CHAPEL HILL - UNC-system President Erskine Bowles wants a commission to determine whether every state university campus in North Carolina should establish a university code that blocks hate speech. No such rules now exist at UNC campuses, Bowles said. Bowles' decision came less than a month after four N.C. State University students spray-painted political statements, which many deemed racially inflammatory and threatening, on the Free Expression Tunnel on campus. Bowles met Tuesday afternoon with leaders of the state chapter of the NAACP. After the meeting, he declared the graffiti hate speech. "I find this whole incident to be deplorable," Bowles...

When the always provocative American Council of Trustees and Alumni issued its critical report of the Universities of North Carolina, the group’s typically thorough review got a surprising fan letter. “As I prepared for this job, I read your report [Governance in the Public Interest: A Case Study of the University of North Carolina System] thoroughly some time ago,” the incoming president of the UNC system had written. “There are many recommendations in this report that I agree with totally.” “Thank you for doing it; it has been an extraordinary help to me.” In its first decade of existence, ACTA...

Erskine Bowles, a Charlottean whose career has taken him to the White House and the United Nations, will become the next president of the University of North Carolina. Bowles won the unanimous recommendation of the university's search committee this week. He's expected to be appointed by the full Board of Governors Monday in Chapel Hill. He will take office on Jan. 1, his 61st birthday. Bowles will oversee the 16-campus system with an operating budget of nearly $5 billion. Brad Wilson, chairman of the board and the search committee, said Bowles' "total life portfolio" was the deciding factor. "The important...

Charlotte Democrat Erskine Bowles has gone to work for his old boss Bill Clinton, this time as a deputy United Nations special envoy to the Indian Ocean region devastated by December's tsunami. "The United Nations will greatly benefit from Mr. Bowles' extensive experience in international affairs and his deep commitment to ensuring that the world does not turn its back on the tsunami victims," Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a statement. Annan said Bowles will work with Clinton, who was supposed to start his job as U.N. Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery this month. Clinton is recovering from surgery...

There are two ways to tell when a political party thinks it is losing an election. The obvious one is where the candidates are choosing to campaign. If they’re stumping in their own backyards and shoring up their bases, while the other side is on the attack, that’s a clear sign. But so is the level of lying. When all is almost lost, the unethical campaign will haul out the lies – the bigger the better. Others have commented on the political geography of where Bush and Kerry are respectively campaigning in the closing days of this campaign. This comments...

RALEIGH, N.C. - A $10 billion payout from a Republican Congress to tobacco growers this week and a tidal wave of television advertisements have elevated Rep. Richard Burr (news, bio, voting record) into a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Erskine Bowles, former President Clinton (news - web sites)'s White House chief of staff. For months Bowles held an 8 percent to 10 percent point lead, an advantage many credited to name recognition from his unsuccessful 2002 Senate campaign against Elizabeth Dole (news - web sites). Among other things, the candidates are battling over who should get credit for a tobacco quota...

<p>CARY, N.C. -- Erskine Bowles pledged to fight privatizing Social Security, saying Monday that his Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate is treading dangerous ground by supporting partial privatization.</p> <p>Bowles used a black marker to sign a pledge that he will oppose partial or total privatization of Social Security.</p>

Bowles 2002 October 4, 2001 To: Campaign Staffers&nbsp; ***For your eyes only*** Now that I've announced that I am running for Senator from North Carolina, it's time to get this campaign going!!!!!&nbsp; The bad news is, of course, that everyone thinks I am a Clinton lap dog.&nbsp; But the good news is that I have done a package deal with the Clintons to come to North Carolina to support my campaign!&nbsp; Yeah!&nbsp; Here is what the deal looks like - everyone pay special attention. The A Team Bill Clinton:&nbsp; Bill provides major firepower for the primary where our nation's first ...

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- U.S. Senate candidates Erskine Bowles and Richard Burr battled Monday night over trade and health care, accusing each other of harming North Carolina workers and seniors. Each of the candidates, participating in a broadcast debate at the University of North Carolina television studios, charged the other with failing to represent the state's citizens. On the issue of trade, the Bowles accused Burr of continuing to support expanded free trade. Bowles, who helped advance free trade deals while in the Clinton administration and later as White House chief of staff, said he won't support additional treaties...

Washington, DC, Sep. 9 (UPI) -- The North Carolina Senate race heated up Thursday as the GOP accused Democrat Senate candidate Erskine Bowles of avoiding his party's presidential nominee. Bowles, former President Clinton's chief of staff, "has made a habit of refusing to publicly appear with John Kerry and John Edwards, usually by having an event somewhere far away," said a spokesman for GOP Senate candidate Richard Burr. While Kerry campaigned in North Carolina Tuesday, Bowles was raising funds in Washington. The Bowles campaign told UPI the charge was "ludicrous" and he was merely doing what must be done to...

<p>As former White House Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles makes his second run for a North Carolina Senate seat, he faces a $120 million lawsuit from the state of Connecticut for bad investments made while a top official at the Forstmann Little investment firm.</p>

RALEIGH — Erskine Bowles, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in 2002 and the likely one again in 2004, is no fool. As President Bill Clinton's chief of staff in the White House, Bowles was one of the few grown-ups picking up the beer cans and broken lamp shades after the adolescents occupying the place. Having proven himself on Wall Street and in the North Carolina business world, Bowles didn't need the Washington power trip the way others around him did. But in 2002, the level-headed Bowles got bad advice, tried to be something he was not, and got thoroughly...

Former N.C. Rep. Dan Blue, a 2002 Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, said he will meet with advisors today to decide if he should make another bid for the Senate this year. Blue, 54, who would be running against his former 2002 primary opponent Erskine Bowles, said he would make an announcement about his candidacy before the candidate filing period begins Feb. 9. Both would be vying for the seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. "I have no particular date to announce, but I know time is running short," Blue said from his residence in Raleigh. Blue, an...

''I have never been so excited about a campaign.'' That was the declaration of Erskine Bowles, once again a Democratic U.S. Senate candidate, before the NC Black Leadership Caucus (NCBLC) two weeks ago. Obviously buoyed by early polls that give him a double-digit lead over probable GOP opponent Congressman Richard Burr, Bowles came before NCBLC, at their invitation, with enthusiasm and promises to represent the black community's interests if elected this time. ''I do think we are going to win,'' the Charlotte investment banker and former Clinton White House chief of staff said emphatically. But to do that, Bowles admitted...