By Gary Pearce

Talking About Politics

The Raleigh political world is abuzz and agog. The legislature and the governor are cooperating. Democrats and Republicans are working together on hurricane relief. Oh, happy day!

Has a new age dawned? Have we entered an era of bipartisanship, brotherly love and dogs and cats living together?

Not so fast, my friend.

Pardon my cynicism, but there’s a simple explanation why the Republican legislature so quickly rubber-stamped Governor Cooper’s storm-relief package and so effusively praised his storm response.

One number explains it: 86 percent.

That’s the percentage of voters who said in a recent poll they approve of how Governor Cooper has responded to Hurricane Florence.

No politician is going to get in the way of an 86 percent approval rating three weeks before the election — and just days before early voting starts.

So, no, the millennium has not arrived. Politics as usual lives. Wait and see how things go in the post-election legislative session.