CORRECTION

Rob Christensen's column on Page 1B Sunday incorrectly identified a CNN anchor who was covering a speech in Fayetteville last week by Sen. Barack Obama. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper covered the event.

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For the next six weeks, North Carolina will pretend it's Iowa -- only without the snow, silos or miles of corn.

The hogs, though, are pretty much the same.

We got a taste last week of things to come. Sen. Barack Obama was in Fayetteville and Charlotte, and former President Clinton was in Charlotte, Cary and Raleigh.

Here is what is coming: TV and radio ads, campaign offices across the state, and a flood of volunteers, surrogates and reporters pouring in -- especially after the Pennsylvania primary April 22.

The advance force is already arriving -- campaign managers, press aides and network reporters.

Then there is the Annie Leibovitz-Cooper Anderson factor. As in, isn't that Annie and Cooper over yonder? The famous portrait photographer and the CNN anchor were in Fayetteville last week.

North Carolina will be different from Iowa and New Hampshire -- a shorter, focused political death struggle between two individuals: Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Among the interested North Carolina voters will be John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, who saw his presidential prospects falter in Iowa.

During an appearance with Jay Leno on Thursday, Edwards declined to endorse either of his formal rivals.

Edwards is so tight-lipped that he would not even say whether he or Obama won the one-on-one basketball pickup game they played on Edwards' NBA-regulation basketball court in his home outside Chapel Hill last month.

The primary has North Carolina Democrats split right down the middle, according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling in Raleigh.

Among those endorsing Obama are the two major Democratic candidates for governor -- state Treasurer Richard Moore and Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue -- U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield of Wilson and state Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand.

"It's a horse race," Rand said. "You've got to have a horse."

But the Clintons also have strong ties to North Carolina Democrats. Former state party chairs Tom Hendrickson and Barbara Allen are helping Clinton. Among the big names expected to endorse Clinton are Gen. Hugh Shelton, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; retired Charlotte banker Hugh McColl and poet Maya Angelou.

It's no mystery which issues are likely to dominate the Tar Heel primary.

Obama chose to make his first appearance in the shadow of Fort Bragg, the nation's largest Army base. In a state bristling with military bases, Clinton is questioning whether Obama is sufficiently seasoned to lead the world's most powerful nation.

"The big question before the voters is: Who is ready to be commander-in-chief?" Mark Penn, Clinton's chief strategist, said.

The Obama campaign is raising questions about whether Clinton has too much baggage. For instance, the Obama campaign recently called attention to Clinton's helping her husband's administration push the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress.

Despite comments from Clinton distancing herself from NAFTA, new documents released last week show her attending White House meetings on the trade pact when she was first lady.

"This is a question of political character," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

That is likely to be the story line in the North Carolina primary -- experience versus character.