Tip: Clicking on tags in this page allows you to drill further with combined tag search. For example, if you are currently viewing the tag search result page for "health care", clicking on "Kay Hagan" will bring you to a list of contents that are tagged with both "health care" and "Kay Hagan."
What made the biggest splash on Dome in 2012? The top 5 stories -- in terms of reader clicks --reflect how North Carolina played a major role in the national political scene and the Washington-driven penchant for little news bits that speak to a larger narrative. It doesn't necessarily reflect the biggest news of the political year, but what generated interest in the blogosphere.
Click below to see the top 5.
In Cary on Saturday, Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, stressed how much was as stake for women in the election.
She said that President Barack Obama and her husband have stood up for the rights of women, whether regarding equity in the work place, protection against domestic violence, or respect for reproductive rights.
“The president and the vice president know how important it is for women to make our own decisions about our own health care,” Biden told about 200 people at a rally outside an Obama headquarters in downtown Cary.
When the threat of rain forced Democratic National Convention organizers to move President Obama's acceptance speech from Bank of America Stadium to Time Warner Cable Arena last month, 65,000 people lost a chance to see history.
Campaign officials promised to try to arrange an event at which the president would meet with the ticket holders before the election. With less than four weeks left, time is running out. And Thursday, campaign officials wouldn't commit to a presidential visit.
"We don't have any announcements," Obama communications director Brent Colburn said in a conference call with N.C. reporters.
Mitt Romney is expected to return to North Carolina before Election Day.
His campaign hinted at the news -- later confirmed by Republican officials -- in an email to North Carolina supporters Friday.
The message said up to six volunteers who knock on the most doors (300 minimum) before Tuesday will get to meet Romney and receive VIP seating at his next campaign event in the area.
No word on whether President Barack Obama will return to the state before Nov. 6. His campaign instead has dispatched Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama in recent weeks.
Erskine Bowles tells the Wall Street Journal that isn't interested in a high-level position in President Barack Obama's second-term if he is re-elected. “I’m staying in North Carolina,” Mr. Bowles told the newspaper's Washington Wire blog. “This is home for me.”
Bowles, the former U.S. Senate candidate, UNC system president and chief of staff to Bill Clinton, is more focused on his federal debt initiative, designed to push the Republicans and Democrats toward a compromise on the pressing issue.
Just like President Barack Obama, Republican Mitt Romney is launching a new TV in North Carolina today.
Obama is talking taxes. Romney's spot is focused on debt -- and debt alone. It's not a clean cut topic. Here's a PolitiFact article looking at the debt picture under Obama.
See full text of ad below.
From Kevin Siers, editorial cartoonist at The Charlotte Observer:
The Romney campaign will hold 22 watch parties in North Carolina during tonight's presidential debate.
They are among 336 watch parties that the Romney campaign will be holding across the country in 12 states. Among those in North Carolina are Natty's Greene's Pub at 505 West Jones St. in Raleigh, the Dilworth Grille in Charlotte, the Greensboro Victory Office in Greensboro, and the Asheville Victory Office.
President Barack Obama's organizers at UNC-Chapel Hill are finding it harder to get students to volunteer for the campaign, reports The Daily Tar Heel, and other students aren't seeing the level of enthusiasm from 2008.
It's not good news for the Democratic candidate, who is counting on youth voters to help deliver the early vote once one-stop voting begins Oct. 18.
From the DTH, the university's independent student newspaper: "Gabby Whitehall, co-founder of Tar Heels for Obama, said her feelings have not changed since the 2008 election, but she has seen a dwindling in some of her peers’ excitement.
Sen. Marco Rubio -- one of the GOP's rising stars -- is scheduled to be in Charlotte on Wednesday afternoon for a Romney-Ryan "Victory Rally," The Charlotte Observer reports. The Florida Republican will speak to Mitt Romney supporters at 1:45 p.m. at SteelFab, Inc., 8623 Old Dowd Road, according to an email from the Romney campaign.
Rubio was among those considered by Romney as a running mate. The Cuban-American lawmaker, who introduced Romney at the recent Republican National Convention in Tampa, is also touted as a future presidential candidate.
