Is This Democrat Too Good for His Own Good?

Mr. Bruni is a contributing Opinion writer who was on the staff of The Times for more than 25 years.

Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee in the crucial and closely watched Senate race in North Carolina, isn’t just a fierce candidate. He’s a fascinating contradiction.

His enormous strength is his greatest weakness. And his campaign aides fret not that the water is choppy but that the sailing’s too smooth.

Just about everyone I talk to in the state — political science professors, political operatives, neighbors on my street, acquaintances at my gym — assumes Cooper will win. He has the biography, the bona fides: worked on his family’s North Carolina farm as a boy; attended college and law school here; served........

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