As part of his visit with The N&O editorial board, state GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer pointed out that Americans need to remember that our sovereignty lies not with our government but with us, and he said that being an American comes with important duties and requires harder work than most realize.

He also said that we tend to overanalyze every nuance of every election and that he has come to an important realization: the ground game rules.

Here are excerpts of his talking of these things:

State GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer met today with members of The N&O's editorial board and other reporters and editors. Fetzer, who said several times that he's tired of political fighting and weary of labels, predicts good things for Republicans in 2010, including a big re-election win for U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

Fetzer said he takes no glee in what has happened to former Democratic Gov. Mike Easley, but he did say that the Democratic dominance of state politics for 100 years is one thing to blame. Competition, he said, keeps politics honest. And he said nobody likes to see good people ruined. He traced North Carolina's political troubles back to when the State Constitution was amended to allow the governor two terms instead of one and said it's time to change that back.

Fetzer rejected the notion that conservative Republicans have to move to the center to get elected and said his party needs to do a better job of explaining the GOP tent rather than enlarging it. If people better understood what limited government means, they would embrace it.

Here are some excerpts of Fetzer talking about Easley and about the current troubles of Gov. Bev Perdue.