What Thom Tillis should do right now

Ditch the "old school" approach for a more modern, authentic campaign

We’ll start with a little personal news, as they say. A decade after leaving the newspaper world — I’m back in it. Well, at least a little bit.

As of last week, I’m now a contributor to the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer opinion pages, trying to add a little conservative insight to an editorial board that’s more liberal than an Asheville drum circle.

Longleaf Politics will continue unchanged; it’s always been a little inside-baseball over here. My newspaper columns will lean more public-interest.

You can read the first column here. It’s about why U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis always seems to make people mad. I encourage you to read the whole thing, but here’s the key snippet:

If you want to be charitable, you’d call him a “maverick” or a “bipartisan leader.” Unfortunately for him, not many people have that desire. The grassroots right calls him a RINO, while the left calls him gutless. But neither quite hits the mark. What’s actually driving Tillis is being a little too comfortable in W…