From CNN.com:

√ Barack Obama: 890,700 votes (56 percent)
Hillary Clinton: 657,943 votes (42 percent)

99% precincts reporting at 1:21 AM Eastern

Update [2008-5-6 23:38:30 by Todd Beeton]:With 98% reporting, he's blasted past her PA gains.

Consider this a thread on Barack Obama's speech following his North Carolina primary victory from Raleigh.

Update [2008-5-6 21:37:47 by Todd Beeton]:Again, Obama is taking on the unpatriotic BS head on.

I love this country too much to see it divided and distracted at this critical moment in history. I believe in our ability to perfect this nation because it's the only reason I'm standing here today. I know the promise of America because I've lived it...it is the light of opportunity that led my father across an ocean, it's the founding ideals that the flag draped over my father's coffin stand for. It's life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In this country justice can be won against the greatest odds...and when we are told that we can not bring about the change that we seek, we answer in one voice: Yes we can!

Nice.

Just in; results to come... ABC News calls it a rout.

Update [2008-5-6 19:48:32 by Todd Beeton]:From CNN's NC exit polls, Obama over-performed among black voters, winning them 91-6, and Hillary Clinton underpeformed among white voters, winning them by a margin of 59-36. And remarkably there really was not much of a gender gap. Barack Obama won men 57-39 and he won women 54-42. A friend tells me that if these exit polls hold up it will translate to a 13 or so point win for Obama.

Interesting that while nationally Obama seems to have reversed Clinton's recent surge, all three new North Carolina polls show Clinton still ticking up a bit.

The key factor here is the racial polarization of the race. Insider Avantage has Obama winning blacks 79-18 while Clinton wins whites 59-33. According to Matt Towery, if Clinton is able to reach 60% of the white vote, she could "pull off a victory" but IA has the poll much tighter than the others. Alternatively, PPP is showing the racial divide to be even more stark.

We estimate that 35% of the primary electorate will be black, and with Obama winning those voters at a rate of 84-11, Clinton's 60-34 advantage with white voters is only enough to pull his lead down to ten.

PPP believes the advantage Barack Obama has had among black voters turning out in force to vote early will make it impossible for Clinton to catch him.

Zogby too has African-American turnout at 35% but has Obama winning among them 77-10 and Clinton winning among white voters by 55-34, thus accounting for a slightly tighter race.

The undecided vote is fairly consistent among all polls, coming in at 7% or 8%. A big question is who exactly the undecided voters are and will they break for Obama as they have in states demographically similar to North Carolina, or will they break for Clinton as they have among voting groups pre-disposed to voting for her.

How do you think it will go?

While the RCP 8-poll average shows the North Carolina primary within single digits, Public Policy Polling blog cautions poll watchers not to forget the lesson we learned from the primary results in NC's surrounding states of South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia.

In all three cases Obama won by double digits more than the average preelection poll suggested, and no one got within seven points of the correct margin in any of the states.

I've recreated PPP's handy chart below:

The reason these trends should be instructive in predicting Tuesday's result is that, as PPP (a North Carolina outfit) puts it, NC is "relatively similar demographically to them - a large black population, plenty of college educated liberals, etc." Now certainly the landscape has shifted toward Hillary Clinton in recent weeks and pollsters are now far more likely to be familiar with the turnout tendencies of certain demographics than they were 2 months ago, but personally I'm not so sure we won't see a similar overperformance by Obama on Tuesday. Of course, if we don't and Hillary is able to keep him to single digits as the polls suggest, it should not be forgotten what a remarkable underperformance (of 20+ points) that would represent for Obama compared to how he did among similar electorates just 2 months before.

Post-Pennsylvania, it looks like it's Hillary Clinton's turn to be the one to close the gap, this time in North Carolina. Both PPP's poll yesterday and the new Rasmussen out today show Hillary Clinton significantly tightening the race with Barack Obama although he's still ahead by double digits.

Add to this the new SurveyUSA, which has Obama up by just 5 points (h/t PPP blog), a net improvement for Clinton of 4 points over last week's poll (no link yet) and it's clear where the momentum is.

From PPP:

The primary movement in the last week has been among white voters. Our last survey showed Clinton leading by only five points in the state with that group but now her margin is up to 56-35. Per usual Obama's overall lead comes from dominating the black vote, which he leads 83-9.

One piece of good news for Obama in the poll is that he has a lot more votes in the bank than Clinton. 14% of those surveyed said they had done early voting already, and with those folks Obama has a 63-31 advantage.

Rasmussen's analysis:

The demographic results in North Carolina are similar to the dynamics seen nationally and in most primaries--Clinton leads by fifteen points among White voters while Obama leads 80% to 11% among African-Americans. Clinton does well among White Women and older voters while Obama leads among those under 65.

Rasmussen has those who've already voted split 68-22 Obama over Clinton.

The benchmark for Clinton's May 6th success right now looks like she needs to win Indiana and keep Obama to 10 points in North Carolina. Considering the 2 most recent polls out of Indiana show her 9 and 8 points up respectively, Clinton looks well on her way to achieving the former; if she can continue this upward momentum in North Carolina, she may very well pull off both.

The Associated Press has the story:

Hillary Rodham Clinton has won the endorsement of North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a surprise boost to her candidacy in a state where Barack Obama is heavily favored to win the Democratic primary.

Easley was expected to announce the endorsement Tuesday morning in Raleigh, the state capital, one week before North Carolina's primary on May 6, according to people close to the governor and to Clinton. The individuals spoke on condition of anonymity because the formal announcement was pending.

[...]

Clinton has benefited from the support of other governors in key primary states, including Ohio's Ted Strickland and Pennsylvania's Ed Rendell. Political observers say Easley, while relatively popular, does not sit atop a massive political operation in North Carolina.

Easley is scheduled to leave office next year after serving two terms as governor. Both Democratic candidates vying for the nomination to replace him have endorsed Obama.

As noted in the AP article above, the Easley endorsement isn't everything; the two candidates running to replace him, Lieutenant Governor Beverly Perdue and State Treasurer Richard Moore, have not only endorsed Barack Obama but even competed to prove to voters which one more strongly supports Obama. What's more, with just a week to go before election day, there isn't necessarily a whole lot that the political machine of an outgoing governor could do to tip the scales.

That said, Easley's endorsement is easily the biggest in the state at this point, and the biggest possible endorsement in the state, outside of that of John Edwards (and perhaps Elizabeth Edwards). While the endorsement will not necessarily put Clinton in the running to take the state -- recent polling puts her behind Obama by a solid double-digit margin (see both Pollster.com and Real Clear Politics) -- tomorrow should likely be a day of positive coverage for Clinton throughout North Carolina. And because we're getting so close to election day, who wins each news cycle does matter. So no doubt, this is a big pick up for Clinton.