Starting gun: Our new governor needs to move fast to inspire change we need.

(The Fayetteville Observer) - Jan. 10 is a big day for Bev Perdue. It’s the day she takes the oath of office and becomes North Carolina’s new governor — and the state’s first female chief executive.

Jan. 12 is bigger. It’s the new governor’s first work day, the day she needs to begin showing us she’ll be what she promised — the “new sheriff in town.”

That’s a tall order. The new sheriff has been hanging out with the usual suspects for more than a decade. Now she’ll have to hand them some new rules.