Primary decision

If North Carolina becomes an afterthought for the Democratic candidates for president, big issues may go by the boards

The two Democrats scrapping for their party's presidential nomination settled nothing in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. But Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama then headed west, not south to North Carolina, even though this is the state richest in delegates yet to be chosen before the Democratic convention in August.

Even though Clinton plans to campaign in North Carolina today and tomorrow morning, the main focus is Indiana, which has fewer delegates to give (72 vs. North Carolina's 115), but which holds its primary the same day as North Carolina, May 6. The reason: that race is seen as more competitive.

That said, Clinton and Obama both have good reasons to pay more than glancing attention to this state down the home stretch, certainly including the hefty batch of delegates still to be awarded. And despite North Carolina's Republican tilt in presidential balloting for three decades, dissatisfaction with President Bush has many voters recalibrating. So the state could be in play come November.

Strategy, of course, dictates the shift to Indiana. Polls indicate that Obama's lead over Clinton in North Carolina is substantial. He simply has to maintain it -- although such leads can't be taken for granted. For her part, Clinton can't be expected to pour limited funds into trying to overcome the sort of disadvantage she's faced in other Southern states. Indiana for her shapes up as a better chance for a win, and Obama, thought to be trailing there narrowly, will use the next two weeks trying to bring Indiana Democrats to his side.

To be sure, voters in both states share in the nation's worries about the economy and about its world standing in light of a long, costly and unpopular war. But both issues have a particular resonance in North Carolina.

This state has a concentration of military bases and troops; they and their families carry a heavy share of the war burden. Meanwhile, free-trade agreements have contributed to the siphoning away of manufacturing jobs, and North Carolina (which also has gained from trade) leads the nation in those losses.

The state has spent money on retraining and education programs that help laid-off workers re-enter the job market. Now it's up to Washington to do more. North Carolina is the perfect place for Clinton and Obama to further explain their positions on those matters.

Similarly, the Bush administration has paid inadequate attention to clean air regulation, prompting North Carolina to take legal action to stem pollution from other states. How would a Clinton or Obama White House intervene to better control cross-border pollution -- among many national issues that are especially important here?

As president, what would either of them do about speeding the opening of a federal depository for high-level nuclear waste, the lack of which for North Carolina means spent fuel rods stockpiled at Progress Energy's nuclear plant in southwestern Wake County? What steps would they take to better protect the nation's oceans and estuaries from pollution? Preserve farms in a state with blazing population increases? Save open spaces?

North Carolina Democratic voters will factor in the intangibles of character and experience as their counterparts elsewhere have had to do during the long primary campaign. But the more they hear from Clinton and Obama in person during the next two weeks, the better informed they will be when it's their turn to have their say. And it won't be long.