North Carolina

RALEIGH, N.C. – Barack Obama, propelled to within touching distance of the Democratic nomination by an emphatic win in North Carolina and a stronger-than-expected showing in Indiana, made light of Hillary Clinton’s hopes for a “game-changing” result during his victory speech here last night.

“Today, what North Carolina decided is that the only game that needs changing is the one in Washington, D.C.,” Obama told a large crowd at NCSU’s Reynolds Coliseum.  read more »

Tuesday was a decisive night for Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton won Indiana, barely, giving her as many states on the day as Obama got.

But the result made clear one thing: It doesn't matter anymore.

Ever since she fell hopelessly behind Obama in the pledged-delegate and popular-vote counts during a string of February defeats, Clinton has clung to a long-shot nomination strategy. She would not be able to overtake him in delegates or popular votes in the late primaries, but she could use them to shake Democrats’ confidence in Obama as a general-election candidate.

This would mean winning overwhelmingly in the late states where she was favored and picking off some or all of those that he had been expected to win. Only then, with Clinton making a compelling case that Obama’s supporters were abandoning him in droves, would superdelegates—loath to overturn “the will of the people” and to risk the devastating intraparty warfare that would come from thwarting an African-American who won a pledged-delegate majority in the primaries—be receptive to lining up with her en masse.

To Clinton’s credit, she strung this all out longer than many thought she could. She won in Ohio and Texas on March 4, when defeat would have meant the end for her. Then she pulled out Pennsylvania on April 22, and suddenly the wind seemed to be at her back. She began receiving a hearing from some opinion-makers on her specious “big state” argument and her questions about Obama’s seeming inability to connect with white working-class voters (something that made the coverage of Jeremiah Wright’s untimely reemergence all the more devastating for him). For the first time since January, Clinton picked up a new batch of superdelegate endorsements and when she latched onto a gas-tax-holiday plan and began bashing “elitists,” game-changing wins in Indiana and North Carolina suddenly became plausible.  read more »

Barack Obama's campaign just released the remarks he's prepared for tonight's primary night rally in Raleigh, N.C., in which he said his campaign stands "less than two hundred delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination ...."

He called Hillary Clinton a "formidable opponent," and congratulated her for her victory in Indiana, and expressed confidence that the party would be united come November.

The full speech follows:  read more »

Barack Obama is winning. North Carolina is his, comfortably, and his delegate-count continues to climb ever closer to a requisite primary-ending majority.

So why has his campaign felt like a long march over broken glass?

“It is painful to watch,” said an influential Obama supporter and delegate in an interview the day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries. “It’s exhausting for everyone involved. It’s exhausting for Barack and Michelle. It’s exhausting for all the campaign staff, and I know it’s exhausting for the supporters.”  read more »

To view the North Carolina Democratic primary from outside the state is to view an ascendant Hillary Clinton and a Barack Obama mired in "bitter" and Jeremiah Wright. To view the primary from inside North Carolina is to see almost the exact opposite.

I traveled back and forth from Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, this past weekend. I grew up there.

All the anecdotal evidence suggested that it's Obama country.  read more »

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a long, impassioned speech last night, Michelle Obama tried one last time before the primary here to combat the idea that she and her husband were elitists, and excoriated Hillary Clinton for her gas-tax “holiday” proposal and her 2002 vote on Iraq.

The personal slights aimed at her family seemed to irk Ms. Obama most of all.

“See, there’s a whole lot of talk in this race about elitism and people being out of touch,” she told a crowd of approximately 1,500 in the Ovens auditorium.  read more »

A pair of outright wins by Hillary Clinton on Tuesday could prompt immediate chaos, with already-jittery Democrats questioning anew Barack Obama’s general election viability and Clinton potentially moving into position to run the table in the remaining contests and to reverse some of the crucial metrics that have favored Obama and sustained his perceived inevitability for nearly three months.

Conversely, a pair of outright Obama wins would almost instantly end the Democratic fight, with previously uncommitted superdelegates interpreting an Obama victory on Clinton turf as cause to step in  read more »

HIGH POINT, N.C.—Sounding a sharply populist note the day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, Hillary Clinton tore into China, OPEC, oil companies, "Wall Street bankers" and predatory lenders during a 35-minute speech at the train station in this town of 100,000 around noon today.

In the process, she sought once again to portray Barack Obama as less knowledgeable about the problems of the less fortunate.  read more »

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Bill Clinton, making a late plea for votes on his wife's behalf here yesterday, asserted that "academic study after academic study" had shown the former first lady to be the victim of "the most slanted press coverage in American history" during this campaign.

Though it was not clear exactly what studies he was referring to, Clinton appeared especially irked by criticism of the senator's proposal to offer consumers a summer 'holiday' from gasoline taxes.  read more »

So far, 2008 has been the year of artificial momentum and warped expectations, and Hillary Clinton has been the beneficiary.

In contest after contest this primary season, we have seen the illusion of momentum, created by the spillover effect from recent results and whatever the dominant media narrative of the moment happens to be. So, for instance, when Barack Obama scored a clear win in Iowa and Hillary Clinton finished in third place, the Clinton Collapse instantly became the media’s obsession and Obama overtook Clinton in New Hampshire polls almost overnight.  read more »

The North Carolina Democratic Party has just announced that the proposed April 27 presidential debate in North Carolina has been officially cancelled. The star-crossed debate would have been hosted by CBS News--and would have been Katie Couric's first opportunity to prove herself as a debate moderator on a national stage.

From the web site for the North Carolina Democratic Party:  read more »

On Friday, before he got sidetracked, Senator Barack Obama suggested that he might bow out of a proposed April 27 debate in North Carolina to be hosted by CBS News and moderated by Katie Couric and Bob Schieffer, reports the Charlotte Observer.

"In a telephone interview with the Observer to discuss his economic plan, Obama doubted whether a proposed April 27 debate at Raleigh's RBC Center would fit with his schedule," reports the Charlotte Observer.  read more »

Get ready, Katie!

After much back and forth, the Clinton campaign has just announced that they have agreed to a CBS-hosted debate in North Carolina, on Sunday, April 27.  read more »

Contrary to some news reports, North Carolina's seven uncommitted House Democrats are not ready to endorse Barack Obama, according to the former chair of the state's Democratic Party.

"I can assure you that that is false," said Tom Hendrickson, the former Democratic official and a Clinton supporter. "I've talked to members of Congress. And folks are going to maintain the time-honored tradition of letting the people run their race and letting the people vote."

The Obama campaign has also denied the report.

DR. SELMAN: How have you been?  read more »

Liz Benjamin says that presidential hopeful Russ Feingold will speak at the Empire State Pride Agenda annual fundraiser on October 5th.

The richest man in America, Bill Gates, has maxed out his contributions to Bill Frist's political committees. He also gave $2,000 to Sen. George Allen.

That outrageous North Carolina congressional candidate, Vern Robinson, has another ad attacking his opponent in an unusual way. "Instead of spending money on cancer research, Brad Miller spent your money to study the masturbation habits of old men."

Amanda Gordon has pictures of Rudy Giuliani, Joel Klein, Barbara Walters and others from the Met Opera's opening night gala.

Daily Gotham says the Mayor's newly created Sustainability Advisory Board is meeting Wednesday behind closed doors.

Phase two of the Atlantic Yards Project, the one with the apartments, has no real deadline.

Somebody created a Wikipedia-like database political opinions.

EnWhySeaWonk spots someone reading "The Truth About The Jew" on the L train.

"Unmarried women unhappy with status quo," and other key findings of a "ground breaking" report from Greenberg, Quinlan Rosner Research is here. Eligible voters who enjoy long walks in the park, read on.

It's official. More people have been killed serving in Iraq and Afghanistan than were killed on Sept. 11, notes Greg Sargent.

And pictured above is the very kind Mark Green campaign aide who sent me (and other reporters?) a thank you note after the campaign.  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

While Rudy Giuliani says he is still unsure about whether to run for president, some of the guests at his appaerances yeterday seem to have made up their minds.

Barry Wynn, the former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party and the finance chair of President Bush's re-election campaign, said yesterday that Giuliani "seems like a man of action and not just talking. He certainly is the type of person Washington needs. He is an outsider and that's refreshing." He also said that he'd "certainly be one of the people encouraging him" to run.

And Marc Rotterman, a southern Republican strategist based in Raleigh, North Carolina, tried out what was doubtless a preview of Rudy's arguments that he can win voters in the socially conservative Republican base.

"There is a perception that the evangelicals are monolith, I don't concur with that," he said "I think he is one of the two or three contenders in the Republican Party."

Giuliani has indeed received warm receptions in conservative parts of the country, and seemed comfortable enough appearing recently with Ralph Reed. It bears repeating, though, that none of it means that evangelical voters will actually vote for him once he's a candidate.

We'll see. (Maybe.)

- Jason Horowitz

Last week at the contemporary photography gallery at Christie’s, an Elizabeth Montgomery look-alik  read more »

Last week at the contemporary photography gallery at Christie’s, an Elizabeth Montgomery look-  read more »

I fell for Lindsey Graham during the Impeachment hearings back in '98 when he was still a Congressman. I used to talk to him after the hearings. The things I love about him are: he's independent-minded, incredibly gifted politically, and he has the common touch. He's a populist with a soft way about him, till he gets his dander up. "Is this Peyton Place or is this Watergate?" he used to say during the impeachment proceedings. (He and I both thought it was Watergate, because of the way that Clinton's women got kneecapped if they thought of speaking out.)

It's time for Senator Graham, who had a military career as an Air Force lawyer, to follow the example of Congressman Walter Jones across the border in North Carolina, and come out against the Iraq war. Declare the Bush strategy a failure, change the mission now, end the occupation, seek a regional concert, some international answer to this disaster rather than trudging deeper and deeper into the big muddy. Graham has the political capital to strike a bigger blow than John Murtha. And every day he waits, more American kids get killed in the name of what?

Listen, I despise George Bush as much as you do. I think he should be impeached for incompetence & his contempt for the consequences of his actions in Iraq is evil... And yet—I confess I always like him, in spite of myself. Here he is taking on a hostile questioner at a town hall event in North Carolina. Note how the guy just wilts under Bush's charm halfway through his assault on him.

The only question is, How did this guy end up being President? A congressman, I can understand. A talk show host. Something—anything, just get him away from the football.  read more »

I've never seen an actual campaign spot like this one, from North Carolina Republican challenger Vernon Robinson, which includes the line, "The lesbians and feminists are attacking everything sacred."

Also, Osama and a Jesse Jackson mug shot.

A reader writes in to point out a letter sent to President Bush today by republican congresswoman Sue Myrick of North Carolina.

Myrick writes, "In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO—but HELL NO!"

—Nicole Brydson

On the cold, wet second day of spring this year, I sought refuge from the lashing sleet with a group  read more »

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Whose idea was it to host concurrent retrospectives of Romare Bearden and Isamu Noguchi at the Whitn  read more »

There's no point pretending that all of Martha Graham's pieces are equally strong.  read more »

As one of the few women on Wall Street selling oil and gambling stocks at a mid-sized shop in the la  read more »

Nine days after John Edwards bowed out of the Presidential race, effectively ceding the Democratic n  read more »

Watching the reception John Edwards has received in New York, it's easy to forget that he is actuall  read more »

With certain exhibitions, this writer finds himself in a position not so much to "review" them as to  read more »

Customer Balks at Pricetag;Optician's Shop Gets Rowdy  read more »

I don't know why opponents of increased homeland-security spending won't simply say what they're thi  read more »

At a family funeral in North Carolina, a cousin and I exchanged e-mail addresses.  read more »

There may be stranger things in life than Paul Newman playing the father of Kevin Costner, but nothi  read more »

"I'm exhausted.  read more »