Contest: You are the pundit

Have you always wanted to be a talking head?

Do you long to have the chyron list you as a "Republican strategist" or "Democratic analyst" on the Sunday morning talk shows? Do you dream of having your two-sentence distillation of the current political scene quoted in the papers?

Now's your chance.

Write a brief analysis of one of the major races in North Carolina right now — the fight for the state's electoral votes, the Senate or the governor, and we'll post it. Includes links to relevant Dome posts or other information on the Internet to back up your points. Do not exceed 250 words.

Try to ground your analysis in facts (e.g. past record of parties in that race, polling data, voter turnout, etc.) Bullet points would be awesome. Include some counterbalancing forces or potential drawbacks to your favored candidate.

E-mail the analysis to dome@newsobserver.com. Include a name we could identify you with, either your full name, a first name or some other handle. We'll post the best analyses (or, if we don't get a flood, all of them) on Dome.

Note: Political types who are working on that race are disqualified, though volunteers are OK. Transparent hack jobs clearly ghostwritten by the campaigns will be thrown out if we figure them out. Confidential to FFC: Don't bother.