Obama Wins North Carolina

Obviously, this changes nothing in terms of who won the presidency. But it does mean that Barack Obama's candidacy helped redraw the electoral map even more than anyone thought.

The Associated Press is now giving Obama North Carolina, concluding that there aren't enough uncounted ballots left for John McCain to overcome his lead. That win gives Obama 364 Electoral College votes, with Missouri the only state that's too close to call.

North Carolina has traditionally been a solid red state, along with Virginia and Indiana, which Obama also won.

No Democratic presidential hopeful has won North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Massive black voter turnout aided Obama's win, but he also did significantly better with white voters in the state than John Kerry did in 2004. Obama won 35% of North Carolina's white voters, up from Kerry's 27%, according to exit polls cited by CNN. Obama also showed gains among white voters in South Carolina and Virginia. In the deepo South, however - Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas – his support among white voters dropped significantly.

Political analysts told the NY Times that what's up in the air, though, is whether Obama's gains will have staying power in the South. They said the black and first-time voters who turned up at the polls this year perhaps won't show up next time, particularly when the Bush administration won't be an impetus to get somebody new in office.

"The tide is gone, and the next question is whether he's a successful president or not," said Carter Wrenn, a Republican strategist in Raleigh. "If he is, he'll be fine, and if he's not the gains will be wiped out."