From Today's local paper
http://www.chapelhillnews.com/...
Betting on next president
D.G. Martin
Why do North Carolina Democrats have so much at stake in the 2008 presidential nominating contest?
The easy answer is, of course, that one of their own could be the nominee. If their former senator, John Edwards, wins the nomination, it could give the party and its supporters a burst of energy that could translate into resources to strengthen its 2008 election efforts in other races.
Even more important, perhaps, are the consequences they fear from the possible nomination of Hillary Clinton, the current front-runner in the race for the nomination. Respected political observer John Davis, the head of NCFREE, recently told me that Clinton’s high negatives in North Carolina would make her candidacy a boon for the Republicans. He believes that Clinton’s presence at the head of the Democratic ticket would draw such a strong Republican turnout to vote against her that it would lead to a complete Republican takeover of the legislature and the governor’s mansion.
It would be like the 1972 election when George McGovern led the Democratic ticket and North Carolinians elected a Republican governor (Jim Holshouser) and senator (Jesse Helms) — thus ending the Democrats total domination of state government in the 20th Century.
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For those who don't know, in NC there used to be a straight Dem ticket voting option for president. However, when McGovern ran against Nixon there was going to be such a landslide against McGovern that the State Dem party changed it so that the landslide against McGovern wouldn't take down other Dems. If Hillary is the nominee I suspect in many red states the Dems will have a -5 point turnout disadvantage for downticket races. There is no further ways that I can think of to mitigate downticket effects of Hillary in 08.
![Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting](http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l252/EdwardsRaysOfSunshine/mccain_hillary.jpg)
I keep asking myself why do Republicans want Hillary to be the nominee so badly? Why is the MSM only talking about Hillary and Obama? I have my suspictions...