The Concentrated Mind of Gov. McCrory

"When a man knows he is to be hanged, it concentrates his mind wonderfully," said Dr. Johnson, and Governor McCrory appeared to be concentrating with unusual clarity yesterday, not as he contemplated Republican wins but as he looked ahead to his own reelection campaign in 2016.

McCrory told WRAL that the GOP needs to "govern with humility" (like that's in their DNA!): "Even though we won, we shouldn't spike the ball. We should behave as though we've been to the end zone before and continue to govern, continue to lead .... North Carolina is still very divided. We've got to recognize where there's differences and then try to have conversations."

That's a worried man right there. Meanwhile, Republican Grand Ayatollah Phil Berger was indeed spiking the ball just like McCrory said he shouldn't: "We think it's a validation by the voters of the direction that we've taken North Carolina in over the past four years," Berger said.

McCrory says he wants to reconsider the expansion of Medicaid. Guaranteed: Berger won't hear of it. McCrory says the few silly vetoes he offered the General Assembly in 2014, and which his Republican allies quickly squashed, were just "a statement, not necessarily to win a battle with lawmakers," a pathetic admission of his total castration at the hands of Mr. Berger, who runs the General Assembly with an iron (extremely conservative) fist.

McCrory realizes that the Republicans haven't yet experienced a state-wide test of their extremist agenda. The Kay Hagan race wasn't it. The General Assembly races just concluded, in those highly gerrymandered districts, wasn't it either. McCrory's reelection struggle in 2016 will be it, and so far the forecast is cloudy with a chance of hail.

McCrory knows it, which means he may be the smartest right now that he's ever been.