A poll by Elon University found that 69 percent of North Carolina residents support offshore drilling. Another 26 percent are opposed.

The poll also found that 67 percent believe gas prices would fall within a decade, Barb Barrett reports.

"People in North Carolina clearly believe that offshore oil drilling would reduce the pain they feel at the gasoline pump and may agree with any initiative to lift the ban that’s in place," said Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University poll.

Here’s the breakdown, according to the poll, of respondents saying when they thought prices would be affected by offshore drilling:

— Immediately to less than one year: 14 percent.

— One to five years: 29 percent.

— Six to 10 years: 24 percent.

— Will never affect gas prices: 6 percent.

More after the jump.

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As offshore drilling looks more and more like a possibility, politicians are trying to shape what might happen off North Carolina’s coastline.

Gov. Mike Easley told the state’s congressional delegation today that he wants North Carolina – not oil companies – to hold any leases that are put out for offshore drilling, reports Barb Barrett.

Easley's comments come in the wake of a bill in the U.S. House to open up the Outer Continental Shelf to oil drilling. That bill, approved late Tuesday, was supported by nine of the state’s 13 House members.

The federal government usually leases acreage to oil companies for several years, putting the leases out to bid and earning money both from fees and a share of oil revenues.

But Easley said North Carolina should get any leases – without paying the federal fees.

“North Carolina's intention is to maintain control over the exploration, drilling and production of this petroleum to guarantee that it benefits our people,” Easley wrote the delegation.

He added: “Otherwise, in the current legislation, private oil companies could drill and drain these last reserves off our coast long before they have exhausted the supply elsewhere.”

More after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole has been among the most admired women in an annual poll.

Between 1996 and 2003, Dole was among the top 10 women named by Americans based on random phone surveys done by Gallup each December since 1946. She was also in the top 10 in 1987, 1990 and 2005.

She first landed in the top 10 as Transportation secretary under President Reagan and again while serving as Labor secretary under the first President Bush.

Her highest ratings were in the 1990s, when she headed the American Red Cross, particularly in 1996 when her husband Bob ran for president and in 1998 and 1999 when she ran for president. Her lowest ratings were in the early 1990s and after she became a U.S. senator in 2003.

In 2004 and 2006, Dole received one percent, but she was not in the top 10. In 2007, Dole received less than half a percent, her lowest score since 1994.

In recent years, the list has also grown, with women such as Condoleezza Rice, Angelina Jolie and Nancy Pelosi joining such longtime stalwarts as Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Thatcher. That has pushed Dole farther down the list.

The top 10 list does not include respondents who answered "None or No Opinion," "Other" or "Friend or Relative." Those responses would typically receive a substantial percentage.

Dole's rankings since 1987 after the jump.

Correction: Some numbers have been changed based on new information.

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John McCain is buying air time in North Carolina.

The Republican presidential candidate had not previously aired TV ads specifically here, although North Carolinians had seen other ads on national cable shows.

Following earlier attacks on the Democratic candidate as a "celebrity," the ad shows footage of Barack Obama's Berlin speech.

"Take away the crowds, the chants — all that's left are costly words," a female narrator says. "Barack Obama and out-of-touch Congressional leaders have expensive plans, billions in new government spending, years of deficits, no balanced budgets and painful tax increases on working American families."

The ad then shows pictures of Obama and U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, Harry Reid of Nevada, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Chuck Schumer of New York.

The choice of "Congressional leaders" is interesting. Dodd is a former Democratic presidential candidate, Reid is the Senate Majority Leader, Leahy an antagonist of Vice President Dick Cheney and Schumer is heading the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Still, these are faces better known to Washington insiders — Dome and his colleagues had to play the ad three times to name them all — and Reid is shown twice. None are running for re-election this year and the ad is not running in any of their states.

In days gone by, Republicans would have linked Obama to Ted Kennedy, though his cancer may have made him too sympathetic to serve that purpose. Still, the absence of Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi is worth pondering.

 — Democrats glanced wistfully back at their past and welcomed their future as they convened their national convention, bidding an emotional farewell to the last of the iconic Kennedys and celebrating the impending presidential nomination of Barack Obama.

On the first night of the 2008 Democratic national convention, Michelle Obama took the flashy high-tech stage of the Pepsi Center to introduce her husband as a family man with classic American values.

And the gathering came amid frank acknowledgements that the wounds of the bitter primary fight between Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton are not fully healed. (Cox News)

— Not far away from the convention hall, a team of Republican operatives worked to blunt enthusiam for the Democrats. (NYT)

— Three key players — a fundraiser, an aide and a spokesman — in Obama's rise to the top have North Carolina ties. (N&O) 

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi kept her pledge to Walter Jones.

Pelosi just called the U.S. House to order and observed a moment of silence in honor and memory of those killed or injured in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, reports Barb Barrett.

Jones, a Farmville Republican, asked Pelosi several weeks ago to begin each month’s legislative business with a moment of silence to the fallen. Just before the Memorial Day recess, Pelosi told him she would.

At 4:25 p.m., Pelosi gaveled the House to order and asked them to stand. The entire House was silent for a minute.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi likes U.S. Rep. Walter Jones' idea to honor the fallen troops during monthly moments of silence in Congress.

Jones, a Farmville Republican, pitched legislation earlier this month as a way to honor those killed or wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Barb Barrett reports. He wants a moment of silence on the first legislative day each month.

"Thank you for leadership," Pelosi wrote Jones this week. "Your idea is an excellent one and I plan to honor it when Congress returns."

U.S. Rep. David Price ranks No. 18 in the House of Representatives in bringing home the bacon, according to the annual "Pig Book" released today by watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste.

Price is responsible for 71 projects totalling $91.4 million, according to the 2008 Congressional Pig Book.

The annual Pig Book tracks targeted spending, called earmarks, that members of Congress direct to specific agencies, local governments or businesses, usually in their home districts.

Such earmarks often are known as "pork" spending.

Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, could be expected to rank high. He is the state’s only member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee — which allocated federal tax dollars. He also is chairman of the spending subcommittee on homeland security.

He is just ahead of Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the dollar rankings.

The next highest-ranking member from the Tar Heel state is U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, at No. 78. His 19 projects total $47.5 million, according to the watchdog group.

In the Senate, Elizabeth Dole ranks 49th. She has 110 projects totalling $133.6 million, according to the group.

With North Carolina in play, will John Edwards endorse?

Earlier, state political commentators argued that the former Democratic presidential candidate had waited too long to make an endorsement of either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Now it looks like he may have strengthened his hand.

Time's Mark Halperin included Edwards on a list of 13 prominent Democrats who could call for Clinton to drop out of the race and have an effect on the media and other Democrats (if not Clinton).

Edwards was No. 3, right after Al Gore and Jimmy Carter, and above Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

As a former North Carolina senator, an Edwards endorsement would carry some weight here, though it would be unlikely to be as important as the national media may make it out to be. 

For his part, Edwards has not made any moves that would indicate that he intends to endorse either candidate until the dust settles, though he recently began working with a group attacking Republican John McCain.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told an audience at Meredith College in Raleigh this afternoon that she was disappointed that Congress had been unable to move troops out of Iraq, but that it would be irresponsible to cut off funding for the troops.

Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the House will continue to push for an end to the war, looking to have combat troops out of Iraq by the end of next year, reports Lynn Bonner.