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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. 

Saying “there’s no more important governor’s race in the America,” New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie touted fellow Republican Pat McCrory and bashed his opponent Thursday at a rally. Christie joined McCrory in front of around 250 people at Catawba College, McCrory’s alma mater.

The visit underscores the GOP investment in the North Carolina race. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley also are expected to campaign with McCrory in coming weeks. Read full story.

More political headlines:

--Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton sharply escalated criticism of his Republican opponent, Pat McCrory, on Thursday, portraying him as beholden to special interests, against public schools and likely to target state workers.

--Charlotte’s host committee paid for one of the biggest Democratic convention expenses – $5 million for use of Time Warner Cable Arena – from a fund that accepted cash from corporations, even though President Barack Obama had instructed convention organizers to not use business money for the actual convention.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton began his television advertising campaign Wednesday, in what could be a critical moment in his race against Republican Pat McCrory. Trailing McCrory in the polls and still not known by nearly half the state’s voters, Dalton hopes the statewide TV advertising campaign will provide his candidacy with a much needed boost.

But the fact that the sitting lieutenant governor is running his first ad in mid-September introducing himself to voters shows how far he has to go in the final eight weeks. Read more here.

More political headlines:

--Senior Republican strategist Charlie Black said Wednesday he would “love to see” his party choose Charlotte for its 2016 national convention.

President Barack Obama didn't give Charlotte or North Carolina a shout out in his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. But he signed an op-ed in today's Charlotte Observer thanking the city for its hospitality: "To everyone who helped make the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte such a rousing success, we have two simple words – thank you," it starts. Read the full Obama letter here.

More political headlines:

--After spending $56 million on a TV advertising barrage unprecedented in North Carolina political history, the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are preparing for a two-month sprint for the state’s 15 electoral votes.

Democrats on Monday dismissed a suggestion by the top pollster for Republican Mitt Romney that President Barack Obama’s campaign is “laying the groundwork for a stealth withdrawal” from North Carolina.

The dueling claims came four days after the Democratic convention in Charlotte – and 56 before Election Day – as both sides jockeyed for the upper hand in North Carolina, a state Politico called Monday one of nine remaining presidential battlegrounds. Read more here.

Other political headlines this morning:

--Democratic gubernatorial candidate Walter Dalton on Monday offered a jobs plan that he said avoids “rigid ideology” but includes a series of practical ideas that he said would help address North Carolina’s high unemployment rate.

Get ready for an all-out brawl in 10 too-close-to-call battleground states as President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney begin a two-month sprint to Election Day.

They will deluge those states with personal visits, stacks of direct mail, automated phone calls and an unprecedented barrage of TV ads in tossup states Florida, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Iowa, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan and Ohio. They'll probably all but ignore the rest of America. Read a breakdown here.

More political headlines:

--Young voters in North Carolina less excited than other age groups, poll shows.

President Barack Obama closed his party’s convention in Charlotte on Thursday night by laying out a case for a second term and casting the election as a choice between “two fundamentally different visions for the future.”

Speaking to a national audience and an overflowing uptown arena, the president – joined by over 40 other Democratic speakers – offered a spirited defense of his record and a sharp contrast to Republican Mitt Romney on issues, from Medicare to mending the economy. Read the full story here.

More political headlines:

--Rob Christensen: Democratic convention showcases the new North Carolina.

--DNC wrap: What it's like to be the N.C. delegation. A final night photo gallery. Charlotte man arrested for Twiter threats against the president. Truth is the casualty at conventions. How did Charlotte do, compared to Tampa? Many at arena turned away. Sharp choice in campaign ahead. 10 protesters arrested in final day. DNC star sightings. Local candidates get a DNC boost, too.

Now the work begins. Democratic National Convention delegates who cheered their political heroes late into the night this week are headed home to try to turn their brimming enthusiasm for President Barack Obama into votes.

Convention-goers leave this city with marching orders to intensify their effort. They know it will be tougher this year and expect to encounter many more fence-sitters than in 2008. It would be a shame “if we come and are excited for a week and we don’t then go out and do the work,” said Lee Storrow, a Chapel Hill Council member.

That message made it into nearly every official convention speech. Read more here.

President Barack Obama said North Carolina "is exhibit A of the unbelievable work that is being done at the grassroots level."

"You guys are just blowing it up when it comes to registering voters," he said in a seven-minute conference call with supporters Thursday.

The kind words are a consolation prize for thousands of N.C. supporters who planned to attend his acceptance speech in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte until it was moved indoors.

Obama said "we can't let a little thunder and lightning get us down -- we're going to have to roll with it."

CHARLOTTE -- Republicans were so certain of carrying the Tar Heel State last time, that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina famously boasted: “I’ll beat Michael Phelps in swimming before Barack Obama wins North Carolina."

As Obama accepts the nomination Thursday night in a state that he improbably carried four years ago, Republicans are once again certain that the state will go red. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, the state’s ranking Republican, doesn’t even think North Carolina should be considered a presidential battleground. Read Rob Christensen's column about Obama's challenges in North Carolina.

More political headlines below:

--This is a critical week for Democratic Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton, who lags behind his governor’s race opponent, Republican Pat McCrory, in voter polls and campaign donations.