Is North Carolina in play after all?

The conventional wisdom has long held that North Carolina's presidential primary won't count.

But will it? A loyal Dome reader did some back of the envelope calculations this morning that indicate the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may not be over by the May 6 primary.

(The Republican race, however, looks like it will be settled by then.)

Look at the delegate counts from last night again. Currently, Clinton has 803 delegates and Obama has 742, according to the Washington Post. It takes 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination.

Between today and May 6, 16 states plus Guam and Washington, D.C., will hold primaries that will decide 1,297 delegates. But at this point, Clinton needs 1,222 to win and Obama needs 1,283.

That means unless Clinton or Obama takes a decisive lead and forces the other candidate to drop out, North Carolina's primary will still matter when it rolls around.

Update: NBC News calculates the delegate count is 847 for Obama, 834 for Clinton.