Gov. Mike Easley can breathe a little easier.

A dog of his "awkward" fist bump with Barack Obama by New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd didn't make it into the syndicated version of her column. Here is the relevant paragraph about Michelle Obama:

She's going to take her big microphone on "The View" as a co-host next week, when she will no doubt try to put her remark about her belated pride in her country in context. And she clearly scored a pre-emptive hit both with her chic style — Vogue's Andre Leon Talley declared in The New York Times the dawn of "a black Camelot" — and with her playful fist pump.

That, of course, leaves off the end of that sentence: "that now has older white guys, like North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, awkwardly trying to do it with Obama."

The column ran in the N&O's editorial section today, even as Dome's earlier post about Dowd made its way into the print edition.

We can assure the concerned readers that this was not a conspiracy on the part of this newspaper's editorial board. But we don't know why the Times left the paragraph out either, so direct your liberal media conspiracy theorizing northward.

Update: More here from public editor Ted Vaden. 

Maureen Dowd has weighed in on Gov. Mike Easley's fist bump.

In a piece published today, the caustic New York Times columnist writes about Michelle Obama's role in her husband's presidential campaign:

She’s going to take her big microphone on "The View" as a co-host next week, when she will no doubt try to put her remark about her belated pride in her country in context. And she clearly scored a pre-emptive hit both with her chic style — Vogue’s André Leon Talley declared in The Times the dawn of "a black Camelot" — and with her playful fist pump that now has older white guys, like North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, awkwardly trying to do it with Obama.