Carter Wrenn says South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford easily tops any politician in North Carolina for sheer moxie.

Even John Edwards.

Wrenn, a longtime Republican political consultant, writes on his Talking About Politics blog that Sanford should get this year's Academy Award for political scandals. He recounts the whole sordid tale of the South Carolina governor's trip to Argentina to see his mistress - and Sanford's claim that it has not prevented him from doing his job, and doing it well.

"There's not a politician in sight in North Carolina who can match that," Wrenn writes. "Not even John Edwards."

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched an ad that questions Sen. Elizabeth Dole's record.

North Carolina and Indiana's primaries are today. How do they compare? 

North Carolina has 8.9 million residents; Indiana, 6.3 million.

North Carolina is 21.7 percent black; Indiana, 8.9 percent.

North Carolina is 48,711 square miles; Indiana, 35,867.

Bush won both states in the 2004 election.

The last time Democratic presidential candidate to win Indiana was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The last Democrat to win North Carolina was Jimmy Carter in 1976.

North Carolina has 115 delegates up for grabs and Indiana has 72.

North Carolina race fans go to Lowe's Motor Speedway. Indiana's fans go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

North Carolina's biggest industry is banking, with the headquarters of Bank of America, Wachovia and BB&T headquartered there. Indiana's industry is health care products and drugs, with the headquarters of Eli Lilly and Co., Anthem and Guidant.

Both states have a rich basketball tradition. Indiana has Larry Bird, Notre Dame, Butler and Purdue. North Carolina has Michael Jordan, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University and N.C. State.

Famous Hoosiers include David Letterman, John Mellencamp and Steve McQueen. Famous Tar Heels include Billy Graham, Andy Griffith and Thomas Wolfe.

The Jefferson-Jackson Dinner hasn't been this exciting in 20 years.

The Democratic Party's annual fundraiser has been going since 1930, attracting such notable guests as Vice President Lyndon Johnson in 1963.

But it's not been as big a deal as it will be tomorrow since the last time North Carolina's presidential primary was meaningful in 1988.

That year, 2,000 Democrats gathered at the N.C. State Fairgrounds to hear from three of the five active presidential candidates: Al Gore, Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson. (Note to younger readers: The dinner is not named for him.)

Michael Dukakis and Dick Gephardt, the other two candidates that year, did not attend.

According to a New York Times account of the evening by Tar Heel native Tom Wicker, "Gore backers made the most noise, though the Senator's speech did not much rouse the audience."

Gore won North Carolina on that year's Super Tuesday, but lost the nomination to Dukakis.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott says that Barack Obama could put North Carolina in play.

The Virginia Democrat, an Obama supporter since before the Iowa caucuses, says that the state has similar demographics to his home state, which Obama won in the Democratic presidential primary.

In Elizabeth City for a voter drive, Scott told Dome he believes Obama would carry the same vote that Sen. Jim Webb and Govs. Doug Wilder and Tim Kaine have gotten in Virginia, and that could mean a fight for North Carolina as well.

That would cut against the grain of recent elections. Virginia hasn't gone for a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson; North Carolina since Jimmy Carter.

"If we can carry one or two southern states, it would be hard to write a list of states the Republicans could win to add up to 278 electoral votes," he argued.

Scott said that would force Republican nominee John McCain to campaign in the South, instead of spending his time in traditional swing states like Missouri and Ohio. 

Newsweek magazine asked the 20008 presidential candidates to name a president they felt showed "uncommon courage."

John Edwards picked Lyndon B. Johnson because he:

supported the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts with full knowledge that doing so would mean long-term political damage to his party, especially in his native region. He used his position to raise awareness of the plight of men, women and children living in poverty. His personal sacrifice said that we have a moral obligation to ensure that no family in the richest nation in the world should live in poverty or be excluded from our political process.

Presumably, he's less fond of Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War.