North Carolina called for Obama

Assuming that these projections hold up, this is a Big Deal ... and one more sign of a real political watershed. Eric Kleefeld of TPM reports:

Barack Obama has won North Carolina, according to projections from NBC News, the New York Times and the Associated Press, with Obama leading by 14,000 votes out of over 4.2 million cast.

Not everyone has called the race yet, but assuming Obama's apparent win here holds up it would be a major watershed event.

This would be the first time that North Carolina has voted Democratic since Jimmy Carter was the South's favorite son in 1976. Beyond that, we apparently now have the state that sent Jesse Helms to the Senate for 30 years, and re-elected him to his final term just 12 years ago, voting for an African-American candidate for president.

--Jeff Weintraub