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Anti-Obama ad campaign launches Monday

Americans for Prosperity — as political observers know — is plenty prosperous. So much so that the group is launching a $6 million ad campaign in North Carolina and other battleground states on Monday.

The campaign focuses on TV and social media and central to it is a TV ad that  attacks President Barack Obama over the federal loan guarantees made to  Solyndra, the California clean energy company that filed for bankruptcy.

Dallas Woodhouse, state director for Americans for Prosperity, was kind enough to send out a link to an ABC News article by Jake Tapper that fact checked the ad. "FYI, (I do not agree with Tappers thoughts)" Woodhouse wrote. He just wanted folks to get an early look at the ad.

Raleigh native in line for White House job?

Raleigh native Brad Woodhouse, communications director for the Democratic National Committee, is being mentioned as a possible replacement for White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. Gibbs, a graduate of N.C. State, said today he'll step down as press secretary.

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza writes that Woodhouse, 43, could be on a shortlist of candidates for the job.

"Southern, wry and politically minded, Woodhouse and Gibbs are personal friends," Cillizza writes. "Woodhouse is eminently quotable and has strong relations with the national press corps thanks to years of flacking for candidates and campaigns. The one knock on him? He might be too political for the official White House staff."

Charlotte Observer political writer Jim Morrill points out that Woodhouse and Gibbs worked together in former Rep. Bob Etheridge's office. Woodhouse also was a spokesman for Erskine Bowles' 2002 U.S. Senate campaign.

Woodhouse isn't the only member of his family in the political spotlight. His brother Dallas is director of the N.C. chapter of the conservative Americans for Prosperity. They've sparred publicly over issues like President Obama's health care proposal, including during a joint appearance last year on CNN.

“You cannot have an honest debate with folks like my brother on this issue,” Brad told CNN host John Roberts. “It’s simple that the president is losing this debate,"

Dallas responded: "You know he’s losing this debate when people like my brother and the White House start attacking hard-working, tax-paying citizens as mobsters.”

UPDATE: Reached at his Washinton office, Brad Woodhouse declined to comment on whether he had spoken with White House officials about the big job. But he and Gibbs are still good friends and are in frequent contact, he said.

A lot of talk about climate change

With the debate over global warming heating up next week - no pun intended - both sides of the issue will be seeking to influence the debate in Raleigh with dueling lunch presentations.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama will be Copenhagen to address the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The same day, N.C. Policy Watch will hold a lunch briefing at the Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh, reports Rob Christensen.

Todd Wooten, director of the Southeast Climate Resources Center at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University and a former legislative counsel to Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, will be the featured speaker. He will be joined by Veronica Butcher of the N.C. Conservation Network and Steve Jackson of the N.C. Budget and Tax Center.

Want a different take on global warming and the cap-and-trade legislation? A few blocks away, at the headquarters of the John Locke Foundation, Americans for Prosperity will be holding their own luncheon on Wednesday.

Dallas Woodhouse of Americans for Prosperity and Roy Cordato of the Locke Foundation will talk about what they see as the flaws in some of the legislative proposals involved in global warming. They will be joined by satellite from Copenhagen by members of the national staff of Americans for Prosperity.

Rally set during Obama speech

Americans for Prosperity will hold a rally at the N.C. State Fairgrounds on Wednesday night ahead of President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The rally will take place at 8 p.m. at the Kerr Scott building at the fairgrounds in Raleigh, reports Barb Barrett. Then, the group — which opposes Democrats' proposals on health reform — will watch Obama's 9 p.m. address live on a big overhead screen, said Dallas Woodhouse, state director of the N.C. chapter.

The rally will follow two more days of Americans for Prosperity's bus tour, which plans stops in the districts of Democratic U.S. Reps. Heath Shuler, Mike McIntyre, Larry Kissell and Bob Etheridge.

"Hands off" health care rally draws crowd

The “Hands off my Health Care” tour bus made its final stop Saturday at a hardware store in Raleigh, where more than 1,000 protestors turned out to voice opposition to President Barack Obama's efforts to reform health care.

The bus traveled 1,370 miles across North Carolina over the last six days, reports Ray Martin. It made 30 stops, collected more than 10,000 petitions and encouraged more than 25,000 phone calls to Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, said Dallas Woodhouse, program director for Americans for Prosperity, an organization that promotes free-market ideas.

Woodhouse, who drove the bus, said Saturday’s crowd was one of the largest.

Teenagers, young adults and senior citizens cheered and held up signs that denounced socialism, higher taxes and the national deficit.

Read more after the jump.

'Patients First' rally planned

As President Barack Obama arrives in Raleigh for a town hall meeting, opponents of his plan for health care reform will hold a rally.

Americans for Prosperity's "Patients First" campaign will rally at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the North Raleigh Hilton, 3415 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh. The event is free and open to the public.

"While we welcome President Obama to our great state we believe people in North Carolina will not be persuaded to support a government run healthcare system that will require billions in new taxes and does not offer free market health care solutions,"  said a statement by Dallas Woodhouse of Americans for Prosperity.

The event is dubbed "Hands Off My Health Care" rally, and participants will be asked to sign a petition and contact their representatives in Washington to push for free market solutions.

The group will also announce details of a 6-day statewide bus tour across the state.

Rally packs opponents to health plan

There was a sea of fans Tuesday night, all with the same logo: a picture of a pair of hands and the slogan "Hands off My Health Care."

That was the scene at at dinner at the RBC Center, meant to generate opposition to efforts by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Rob Christensen reports.

About 350 people packed into a club room for a buffet of Mexican food, and to hear speeches and videos in which Obama’s health care proposals were portrayed as similar to nationalized health care plans in England and Canada.

Americans can expect long lines to see doctors or to get surgeries, and government bureaucrats telling them what medications they can receive, according to the portrayals.

"Politicians want to control who lives and who dies," said Dallas Woodhouse, the head of state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a Raleigh-based conservative advocacy group.

More after the jump.

Correction: Post originally misstated when the rally was held.

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