michelle obama, perhaps the president's secret weapon, making, what, 11 visits to north carolina since 2009? talk about mrs. obama's appeal there. >> well, she has stressed military families and helping them and, of course, north carolina has a very strong military presence with fort bragg and camp lejeune, the marine base. so military issues are very important. it's a way -- she's much more popular than her husband is here, and it's a way to portray herself and to portray, sell the obama administration in a very nonpartisan way because it has broad support, it goes across party lines, of course. arthel: and then, rob, you mentioned that 2008 election. of course, the obama/biden ticket getting 49.70% of the votes there, the mccain/palin ticket, 9.48. so close -- 39.48. so close. so i ask you, what is it about the politics of north carolina that makes it such an enigma? >> well, there's a couple things going on here. first of all, it's a upper-tier