Just before we left for a European cruise (more on that later), Governor Roy Cooper held a boisterous Veto Rally that highlighted Republican legislators’ extreme abortion bill.

The day we came back, he declared a “State of Emergency for public education” in a five-minute video that highlighted Republican legislators’ extreme anti-education budget.

Supermajority-sotted Republicans called the events “stunts.”

But Cooper has a power they don’t have: the biggest microphone in the state. And he’s by far the most popular politician in the state.

No, he couldn’t make the abortion veto stick. But he can damn sure make the extremism label stick.