G. Frink's

Neighbors reported blizzards of Liddy Dole/John McCain robocalls filling up answering machines without regard for whether they had voted, while the only boots-on-the-ground get-out-the-vote effort we saw here was Obama's.

Obama's GOTV team left beautiful, information-rich color "door hangers" which featured easy-to-read, personalized information about both where I vote and how to use the oddly structured North Carolina ballot.

Those "door hangers" illustrate the Obama campaign management skill and attention to detail which created the edge that drove polling analyst Nate Silver to predict an Obama North Carolina win and national electoral vote landslide.

Knowing elections aren't over until the votes are counted and/or Supreme Court judges have ruled, I've nonetheless been predicting Obama would turn North Carolina blue since the first debate, when McCain failed to use the words "middle class" or meaningfully explore issues afflicting this state's economically besieged middle class.

Even the giddy populism of Sarah Palin couldn't fully make up for that Republican message and platform mismanagement.

If through some fluke Obama doesn't win North Carolina tonight, that failure will still have helped elect Democrat Kay Hagan to the U.S. Senate and perhaps helped put Bev Perdue in the governor's mansion.

Omission of those words exemplified Republican concern for the very well-off at the expense of the rest of us, and condescending stunts like exploitation of Samuel J. Wurzelbacher as "Joe the Plumber" did little to obscure the message.

Obama not only used the words "middle class," he spoke in dollar-and-cents tax-cut terms to the real, meat and potatoes needs of real North Carolinians.

That combination of sound management under pressure and proposals faithfully designed to meet the needs of real North Carolinians are the keystones to the Obama victory I expect.