Waiting for Sam and Roy

Sam Olens might be hard to beat for governor next year, if he had a $10 million-plus campaign war chest and established statewide fame.

March 28, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

A sincere plea to Sonny and Romeo: Please don't embarrass Georgia again. I can see what you're up to. You're already shuffling the political deck so you can play the race card in the next election. Don't do it. We've been hurt enough.

March 25, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

A new vision for Georgia

House Speaker Glenn Richardson has just unveiled a new vision for Georgia that would surpass previous endeavors and might even make a little money. Richardson would make Georgia the marriage capital of the nation almost overnight. Atlanta could become Las Vegas east without quite as many home foreclosures with a lot more churches.

March 11, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

The red ghost

Want a formula for winning elections in the South? Fear + Hate – Transparency and Realism = Victory. Candidates for governor and other high offices in the old South typically won elections by scaring the daylights out of the white majority. The Talmadges, Herman and Gene, crisscrossed Georgia warning that Yankee carpetbaggers and homegrown blacks were working to destroy "our way of life." Only the Talmadges could stop the coming pillage, ...

March 04, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

Sonny’s really lost it this time

This is a one-question quiz on Georgia government. Only Gov. Sonny Perdue knows the right answer. Pay attention.

February 25, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

The peanut inspector

Georgia's 9th District congressman, Nathan Deal, usually doesn't make ripples in Washington. So when he came out of his shell the other day to defend the peanut before Congress, he made news. He told a House committee hearing on the recent Georgia peanut scandal that he often ate raw peanuts and suffered no ill effects. His declaration didn't make much impression on his colleagues, who are determined to craft new laws regarding peanut safety.

February 18, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

What the bulldogs need

Let's forget the economy and Barack Obama for a moment. Let's turn to a really serious question that should have been addressed months or even years ago: What's wrong with the Georgia Bulldogs' football team? Why do the Bulldogs seldom win the big one?

February 03, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

Chuck and the judge

I remember when ... ... Chuck Morgan sat in his shabby fourth-floor office in an aging building on Forsyth Street. Known among reporters as the Bomb-Throwers' Building, the low-rent edifice housed most of the civil rights organizations in Atlanta.

January 13, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

A battle to get even

As 2009 dawns, the next cycle of Georgia politics is coming into view. We already have seen coverage of the budding race for governor, with Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine preparing to run for the Republican nomination. Other GOPers considering an entry include Secretary of State Karen Handel and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland.

January 06, 2009 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

The road ahead

By this time next year, you may think 2008 wasn't so bad after all. Sure, the economy went into a nosedive. Unemployment rose, and so did bankruptcies and foreclosures. It could have been worse. At year's end, there was a break in the clouds.

December 30, 2008 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

Brother, can you spare a billion?

Gov. Sonny Perdue deserves a round of applause for seeing the light. Just weeks after warning that Georgians can't borrow their way out of debt, the governor announced in general terms that he now favors increasing the state debt. Perdue wants state government to borrow an unspecified sum to stimulate the economy and wipe out a looming $1.6 billion state deficit.

December 27, 2008 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

Trampling reform

&emsp;Not many folks in these parts remember or even care much anymore, but 10 years ago education reform was a top priority on the national and state agendas.

December 20, 2008 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

He's baaaaack....

Thank goodness. Zell Miller is back. The former heavyweight champion of populist Southern Democrats has come out of retirement. He helped Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his just-finished bout with Democrat Jim Martin. Miller also aided Chambliss in his first race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who, once upon a time, had been one of Zell's closest pals and fiercest supporters.

December 13, 2008 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

Advice for the GOP

For Republicans seeking a silver lining from the last election, try this one: The GOP held the Old South. After 40 years, the Republicans' Southern Strategy still works. Race beats all. Sure, the Democratic presidential ticket took North Carolina, Virginia and Florida. Virginia and Florida no longer count as Old South. Florida is New York south and snooty Virginia had rather be known as a Middle Atlantic state. I don't know what happened to North ...

December 03, 2008 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

When the cheering ends

The moment the TV networks declared Barack Obama the president-elect, something wonderful happened. The perception of the United States changed around the world. America was the international good guy again. There was dancing in the streets of the great cities of Europe, Asia and Africa.

November 26, 2008 | Bill Shipp | OPINION

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