Yesterday I linked a couple of predictions on the NC presidential race. John McCain was in Fayetteville, NC last night and I just read that Sarah Palin will be in Raleigh on Saturday. McCain evidently made a pretty impressive entrance to the Crown Coliseum.

We have some other interesting races going on here as well. The Dole-Hagan Senate race is getting a lot of attention. The best ad I have seen in that race shows Hagan on a big blank check and warns voters that if she wins it will be the equivalent of giving Senate Dems a blank check. I didn't note whether that ad came from the Dole campaign or an outside group, but it is really good.

The governor's race here is close with the Republican, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, currently leading the Democrat, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue. (That's right, here in NC we have a women on the ticket in the Presidential, Governor and Senate races.) If McCrory wins it will be the first time a Republican has won the Governor's race since Jim Martin back in the 80's. I saw McCrory speak at the Palin event in Greenville and am not surprised he has is so popular with Independents and Democrats in Charlotte. He is a very energetic speaker. Here are a couple of links to McCrory YouTube ads -- one on appointing fundraisers to the state Board of Transportation and one on offshore drilling.

Update: The most insulting and grating NC ads this election season feature two old codgers sitting on the front porch chatting about how bad Republicans are. What is especially grating about the ads, putting aside the content for now, is the fake southern accents. These guys are either faking southern accents or they are over emphasizing the accents they do have to the point that they remind me of Nicolas Cage's cringe-worthy accent in Con Air ("Put the bunny down" for those who have seen the movie).

Now for the content. One of the ads Beverly Perdue is running includes this exchange between the old coots:

HENRY: I know. I read in the paper that he said Charlotte's getting ripped off. And he'd take money away from rural highways.

BILL: Oh you're kidding.

HENRY: Why Bill he even questioned where we should even pave roads in small towns and rural areas.

I wondered where she got that claim from and just found out listening to Pat McCrory on a local radio show. McCrory criticized Perdue and the Board of Transportation for only putting roads where Democrat political cronies and contributors lived. Evidently some of them must live in rural areas, therefore McCrory is against paving roads in rural areas. It has been exciting being in a battleground state with so many visits from the presidential candidates, but I will not miss the ads -- and I have DVR so I don't even watch most of them.