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Obama Wins North Carolina

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 08:45:00 AM EST
Tags: Barack Obama (all tags)
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It's official. Barack Obama won North Carolina. With Indiana, his total electoral votes are now at 364. Only Missouri is still unknown.

So of the battleground states, he won Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Indiana, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The Mandate grows. And it will go down in the history books as the best-run campaign ever, to date.

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    Obama Wins North Carolina | 16 comments (16 topical)

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    Revised from below, thoughts on North Carolina (5.00 / 0) (#2)
    by andgarden on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 12:57:17 AM EST
    One thing that strikes me is the final adjusted exit poll for the state. It has Obama winning only 35% of the white vote. Knowledgeable commentators speculated that he would have to get 36% of it because it was highly unlikely that the black composition of the electorate would rise above 21% (the 2004 exit poll is controversial because it pegs the black vote at 26% and the math doesn't work out for other reasons). Well, this year's exit poll says that blacks accounted for 23% of the electorate--higher than most thought possible.
    Possible explanations:

    Obama actually got more than 35% of the white vote and there was an insignificant reverse Bradley effect.  
    Whites stayed home.
    Obama's turnout machine was working on full cylinders and produced an electorate no one thought possible.
    Perhaps some combination of the three is right. Who knows. . .

    Anyway, congrats the the President-elect.

    Combo (5.00 / 0) (#9)
    by indy in sc on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 08:24:30 AM EST
    I think it's a combination of the factors you cite, but I can tell you that the turn-out machine was working on full blast at the NC polling site I was monitoring.  

    Parent
    Whoops, copy and past wasn't friendly (none / 0) (#3)
    by andgarden on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 12:59:14 AM EST
    link to the exit poll from this year here.

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    Or (none / 0) (#5)
    by zvs888 on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 02:58:47 AM EST
    Many white Republicans stayed home; it's looking like McCain's falling well short of Bush in a lot of areas.

    Also, isn't Omaha's district still up in Nebraska?

    Could end up being 365 if that count comes in...

    Parent

    Oh (none / 0) (#6)
    by zvs888 on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 02:59:38 AM EST
    You commented on that; well I think that's the right one because the overall number is lower than expected.

    (Unless there's tons of absentee ballots hiding somewhere)

    Parent

    Omaha EC (5.00 / 0) (#11)
    by connecticut yankee on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 09:15:09 AM EST
    FiveThirtyEight quotes a paper in Omaha as saying Obama is likely to pick up the Omaha EC.  Votes are still being counted and its close.

    Gives him 365 if it comes off.

    Growing up in the country in NC, (5.00 / 1) (#13)
    by Howard Zinn on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 10:33:21 AM EST
    I really couldn't be more shocked and proud. I mean, you should have seen the people I grew up with and their families.  I made friends in high school only with the few outcasts who were progressive like me.

    Tuesday was a victory for the world.  But winning NC is a victory for the South and a sign of the times.  

    I work near NC A&T, a historically black college in downtown Greensboro.  The Obama team did an incredible job of getting those kids pumped for the primary, and keeping their enthusiasm up for the GE.  The free Arcade Fire show during the primary really brought the mostly white kids out from UNC-G.  

    The work the campaign did in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area was insane.  All of the colleges clustered in this area was a prime target and a great one.  NC was one of the few states where the youth vote actually won it for Obama.  

    I'm still in awe of this election and am still quite moved at seeing so many diverse people coming together for one cause.  I actually feel like I'm part of this state now.

    Exactly what my former sister-in-law's (none / 0) (#1)
    by oculus on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 12:56:10 AM EST
    husband feared would happen.  His latest worry:  Congressional majorities and President are Democratic.  

    worse, they have the majority in the (1.00 / 1) (#7)
    by suzieg on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 03:27:38 AM EST
    house and senate + presidenty and Pelosi won't bring up health care reform - but giving illegals amnesty is a priority in the first 100 days over 46 million people without health insurance + countless underinsured!

    and what about this little gem?

    Politico44 via Ben Smith:

    Letting in the lobbyists
    Martin and Cummings have the scoop on how Obama is implementing his pledge to keep lobbyists out of the White House (which was actually a pledge to bar them from working on the issues on which they lobbied) while bringing them back into his transition:

    With the campaign over, lobbyists are out of the dog house and helping with the White House transition team. But they're also being asked to sign a document pledging to not lobby for one year the department or agency they're helping to staff, according to Democratic sources.

    President-elect Barack Obama has named 18 people to his team - and half of them are, or once were, registered lobbyists.

    Those currently registered are Cassandra Butts, the team's general counsel and a lobbyist for the Center for American Progress; Patrick Gaspard, the associate personnel director and a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union; and Mark Gitenstein, the co-chair of Vice President-elect Joe Biden's transition team and a lobbyist with the law firm Mayer Brown.

    Obama's challenge is that many of Washington's experienced Democratic policy hands have made their living, for at least part of the Bush years, in lobbying. But he ran on a message of reform, refusing to take contributions from lobbyists and saying that they wouldn't work in his White House.

    I'm already thouroughly disgusted following their 2 day victory.

    Parent

    thoroughly disgusted? (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by txpublicdefender on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 04:15:30 AM EST
    Wow.  Doesn't seem to take much.

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    this is off topic (none / 0) (#15)
    by Jeralyn on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 11:41:50 AM EST
    the topic is north carolina and electoral votes.

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    And there's more to come I'm sure. (none / 0) (#4)
    by SamJohnson on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 01:30:40 AM EST
    Looks like that second prediction electoral map wasn't crazy at all. I still think Georgia is hiding votes or something. But there are still 3 active Senate races and lots of counting to do in CDs as well. This is a huge mandate, and it will get even bigger as the days go by if we don't give up. The election of 2008 is far from over. We definitely have our President Elect, but not our full House and Senate yet. Can we fix election laws now?

    A day or so ago (none / 0) (#12)
    by BackFromOhio on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 09:36:32 AM EST
    Georgia had yet to count paper ballots (early voting ballots, I think) from the liberal-leaning counties surrounding Atlanta; and I believe there are/were enough votes there for the Dem to take the Senate seat.

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    missouri and minnesota (none / 0) (#10)
    by Oceandweller on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 08:55:18 AM EST
    still waiting...

    For us, absentee balloters voting from abroad, we were informed that any ballot sent before the election could still be accepted until the 10 of november
    if my son voted on the 3rd so if his ballott reaches des moines on the 9th, it will be added to Obama count. Mom being older voted on the 25th october so it will be counted. Anyhow , if Missouri and Minnesota have the same time opening, we shall known only after the 11th who was elected there and who is the Senator, not before. Patience

    Remember the primaries? (none / 0) (#14)
    by Nevart on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 11:27:37 AM EST
    So, is everyone who argued that Obama could never win the "big states" now ready to admit error?

    Sure (none / 0) (#16)
    by Steve M on Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 12:12:52 PM EST
    All zero people who argued that Obama could never win California because he lost the primary are ready to tender their apology.

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    Obama Wins North Carolina | 16 comments (16 topical)

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