The Washington Post is calling North Carolina a "swing state."

In an interactive map on its Web site, the paper rates the chances of the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain:

A stretch for Democrats, but Obama's team hopes a huge turnout from black voters will make this a battleground. Even the presence of John Edwards as the Democratic vice presidential nominee didn't help in 2004, as John Kerry lost the state by 12 points.

Time was North Carolina Democrats skipped the convention.

In 2000, then Attorney General Mike Easley skipped the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, hoping to keep his gubernatorial campaign distinct from Al Gore's.

In 2004, Easley skipped the convention in Boston to nominate John Kerry, as did Senate candidate Erskine Bowles.

In both cases, their advisors said they were too busy here in North Carolina to attend, even though U.S. Sen. John Edwards was on the ticket. 

Meantime, state Republicans have been happy to attend their conventions.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Patrick Ballantine and Senate candidate Richard Burr went to the 2004 GOP conventions.  

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole even spoke at the 2000 and 2004 conventions in New York for George W. Bush and gave a memorable speech at her husband's 1996 convention.  

Well, times have changed.

What bipartisan efforts has U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole worked on?

At Dome's request, the Salisbury Republican's staffers sent a list of bipartisan efforts that she is most proud of from the past six years:

* Climate Change: Dole co-sponsored a "cap and trade" bill to reduce carbon emissions by Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman and Republican John Warner this session.

* Military Family Leave: Dole co-sponsored a bill by Sen. Hillary Clinton to allow some workers 12-month leaves to care for family members wounded in action.

* Lumbee Recognition: Dole worked with Gov. Mike Easley, U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, among others, on legislation to recognize the Lumbee tribe.

* Tobacco Quota Buyout: Dole worked with U.S. Reps. McIntyre and Bob Etheridge on a tobacco quota buyout program included in a 2004 jobs bill.

* Catching Fugitives: Dole co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Richard Durbin to give law enforcement agencies help capturing fugitives from the U.S. Marshals.

Dole's staffers also cited her work on 211 expansion with Clinton, creating infrastructure bonds with Sen. Ron Wyden, requiring a White House conference on nutrition with Sen. John Kerry, demanding Iraq fund a greater share of its reconstruction with Sen. Ben Nelson, and amending trade adjustment laws and calling for an Oil and Gas Market Fraud Task Force with Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Previously: Dole's Democratic cosponsors 2003-08.

North Carolina is among Barack Obama's second tier of targets.

In an interview with Politico, the Democratic presidential nominee's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, said that they will focus on 14 states won by George W. Bush in 2004.

Hildebrand, in an interview, listed states in order of the margin by which Bush carried them: The closest four, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio, Nevada, he said, would see "a ton of attention."

But he said Obama would campaign hard in ten more states, with the candidate and his top surrogates spending time on the ground and his campaign spending money in the air. Those are Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Virginia, North Carolina, Montana, North Dakota, Indiana, Georgia, and Alaska.

That likely means a few high-profile rallies and a regular drumbeat of ads here, but not a full-court press such as we saw in the Democratic primary.

If past experience holds, Obama might start to drop off in the polls closer to election day and pull out of the state entirely, as John Kerry did.

U.S Rep. Bob Etheridge may not be that close to Barack Obama, but his former staffers are.

Two former staffers for the Lillington Democrat are now working for the Democratic National Committee, according to the Washington Posts' The Fix blog.

Brad Woodhouse served as a policy aide and then press secretary Etheridge's for nearly five years before leaving to work for Erskine Bowles' 2002 campaign against Elizabeth Dole. He previously worked for Gov. Jim Hunt's administration.

He will now share communications duties at the national party with other staffers.

Woodhouse has a close relationship with Robert Gibbs, a spokesman with Obama's campaign. Gibbs worked as Etheridge's press secretary, leaving to join John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign and later the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

When he left that job, he was replaced by Woodhouse.

North Carolina could be in play, analysts say.

The general election matchup between Barack Obama and John McCain is the biggest chance in years that the state could actually be competitive.

North Carolina has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976. The last time it was close was 1992, when George H.W. Bush narrowly carried the state over Bill Clinton. Even with John Edwards as a running mate, the John Kerry campaign did not make a serious effort here.

One recent poll showed McCain with a 43-40 lead over Obama in North Carolina.

Still, there is a history here of gifted black candidates doing well in a Democratic primary but losing in the general election, notably former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt's unsuccessful races against U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms in 1990 and 1996. (N&O)

Former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Neal is lobbying for Hillary Clinton for vice president.

The Chapel Hill investment banker, who lost the Democratic primary to state Sen. Kay Hagan in May, is the spokesman for Draft Obama Clinton in North Carolina.

The group is pushing for Clinton to be Barack Obama's running mate.

"Both Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have energized millions of new voters, and all of them are committed to seeing a Democrat in the White House in January," Neal said in a statement. "The best way to unite the party is to unite the two strongest candidates our party has ever seen."

Draft Obama Clinton was launched by Citizens Consent, a grassroots organization unaffiliated with either campaign. It launched a draft Kerry-Edwards Web site in 2004, collecting over 100,000 signatures in an online petition. 

In the primary, Neal endorsed Obama, saying he thought Clinton would be great in the No. 2 slot. In recent weeks, he has reorganized his Facebook supporter group, saying he intends to remain involved in state politics. 

More people voted in the Democratic primary than for John Kerry.

According to the State Board of Elections, 1,563,958 people voted in the Democratic presidential primary this year.

That's 38,109 more than the 1,525,849 who voted for the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004 — potentially a 2.5 percent increase in the Democratic base.

There are several potential reasons: A) The population has grown in the past four years, so there are more voters. B) Black voters, who were not particularly enthused about Kerry, turned out en masse for Barack Obama. C) More unaffiliated voters crossed over in the primary than in the 2004 general election.

Does it mean that North Carolina is in play in November? Not unless the Democrats can snag some more Republicans or Republican-voting unaffiliated voters, since Bush garnered 1.9 million votes that election.

Still, the Obama campaign said that North Carolina and Indiana are the first two states where the Democratic primary has attracted more than 100 percent of the Kerry vote.

FAYETTEVILLE—Paul William Bucha will introduce Barack Obama.

The Vietnam veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor winner told Dome he would give a short introductory speech at today's event.

"If I don't change my mind," he joked.

Bucha has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq war. In 2004, he was on the board of advisors for Operation Truth, a 501(c)4 group that criticized President George W. Bush's handling of the war.

He also spoke out about attacks on 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry, particularly his Purple Heart. 

In 2006, he introduced anti-war Democrat Ned Lamont at an event in his home state of Connecticut. (Lamont won the Democratic nomination, but lost to Sen. Joe Lieberman, who re-registered as an independent.)

Perhaps it's not surprising that Bucha is not on the Clinton team.

In 1992, he was one of a group of veterans who raised questions about Bill Clinton's avoidance of service in the Vietnam war. 

Kay Hagan has hired a campaign manager.

And here's the first and last quote you might hear from her:

"I do not go on the record," said Crystal King, unprompted, to two reporters Monday after one of them asked her name, David Ingram reports.

King had just started to usher Hagan out of the State Board of Elections after filing as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

Not exactly a warm greeting.

A quick check on Google shows that the Ohio native has worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.

Hagan, 54, is serving her fifth term in the N.C. Senate from Greensboro. She is one of several Democrats hoping to face Republican U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole in November.

She has already lined up her top management team, which includes some Senate veteran staffers, but she has not yet publicly announced them.