Good Politics

Earlier this week I spoke to a group of North Carolina environmental leaders about the 'political landscape' in the state.

One of the folks there asked me whether I thought Richard Moore had any chance at all of making up the large gap in the polls.

I said I thought it would be very hard because every time he does something to try to differentiate himself substantively from Bev Perdue, she just does the same thing a little while later and makes it a wash.

I was particularly referring to Perdue coming out against the proposed Cliffside coal fired power plant a mere matter of hours after Moore did. He thought taking a stand would help him score points with the environmental community but she neutralized it just hours later.

The latest example is Moore endorsing Barack Obama a few weeks ago. Now Perdue has done it too.

It's great front runner politics. If you have a big lead, why give your opponent any space to make it up?

Two final points:

-Our poll last week showed Perdue leading 55-21 with supporters of Obama.
-This is why Richard Moore's only chance at the nomination is effective negative advertising, sooner than later. She's not giving him any ground on the positive stuff.