Gary Pearce, on the “Talking about Politics” blog:

To Ronald Reagan, it was always “morning in America.” To John Hood, it has always been “midnight in North Carolina.”
There’s nothing special about North Carolina, Hood argues. Our “exceptionalism” is a myth.
Therein lies the difference between Reagan’s sunny conservatism of the 1980s and Hood’s dark depictions now. And the News & Observer’s Rob Christensen, whose Twitter handle is “@oldpolhack,” eviscerates Hood’s rewrite of history in his column (Wednesday).
Christensen writes: “Hood seeks to frame the debate as between ‘constructive conservatives’ and ‘the left,’ as if we were living in California and not North Carolina. North Carolina ranked 45th in the country in state government per capita spending growth in the years between 2001-2011, according to a study released last year by the conservative Tax Foundation. Some left. North Carolina has been governed by moderates, both Democrats and Republicans, until the current experiment to make the Tar Heel State a national laboratory for libertarian conservatism. Hood finishes his column by saying, ‘When it comes to economic history, let’s stick to nonfiction.’ Hear, hear.”
Hear, hear indeed.
An interesting sidelight here is how Rob, now that he’s a twice-weekly columnist instead of a daily reporter/analyst, is becoming more comfortable moving beyond straight reporting and into deeper analysis. For decades, Rob carefully muted whatever political views he has. I have no idea what they are, and I pride myself on being able to sniff out people’s politics at a thousand paces.
How many times have Democratic operatives grumbled: “That damn Christensen. You can tell he’s a Republican.” Well, no, I couldn’t tell.