Obama won N.C. by 0.3 percent

It's about to be official: Barack Obama carried North Carolina in a squeaker.

With all the provisional votes counted, the president-elect broadened his narrow lead over Republican John McCain.

Obama carried the state with 49.7 percent to McCain's 49.38, a difference of 14,192 votes, according to the final count by the State Board of Elections staff. Before the provisional votes were counted, Obama led by 13,746.

The vote won't become final until the State Board of Elections meets Tuesday in Raleigh.

Obama got 2,142,649 votes to McCain's 2,128,457, including the provisional ballots. Libertarian Bob Barr won 25,722, and there were 13,942 write-in votes.

This was the first time that North Carolina had gone Democratic since 1976, when Democrat Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford.

Wallace, Perot -- and Barr?

Barr was a spoiler in North Carolina after all.

Though the Libertarian presidential candidate made only token appearances in the state and received a minuscule number of votes in November, he still got more votes than the margin of difference between Obama and McCain.

Barr's 25,722 votes were more than one-and-a-half times the 14,192 margin that made Obama the winner of the state. Put another way, Barr had about 0.6 percent of the vote, while the margin was about 0.3 percent.

That puts Barr into elite company in North Carolina: Only five third-party presidential candidates earned enough votes to affect the outcome in North Carolina since 1908.

They are: George Wallace in 1968, Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, Ross Perot in 1992 and in 1996 and John Anderson in 1980. (Technically, Roosevelt did not earn more than the margin of Woodrow Wilson's win, but he came in second, so we count him.)

The number of write-in votes was close enough to the margin this year to almost qualify.

GOP women stand up for Palin

Leave Sarah alone!

That's the message from a Wake County Republican women's group, whose members think the post-election sniping at Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been unfair.

The N.C. Federation of Republican Women passed a resolution expressing concern about negative treatment of Palin, "especially by McCain/Palin campaign staff, since the election."

The resolution also criticizes media reports that it says are insulting to all women who aspire to political office.

The group further says Sen. John McCain has not gone far enough in defending his former vice presidential running mate.

At a Wake County Republican Women's Club luncheon last week, leaflets were distributed, urging members to e-mail the McCain campaign and calling on the former presidential candidate to stand up more forcefully for Palin. Also distributed was Palin's work address in Juneau.

The club has a life-size cardboard cutout of Palin.

Carlisle praises diversity

Linda Carlisle says diversity will strengthen Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue's new administration.

The retired Greensboro businesswoman, who was added last week to Perdue's transition team, said having male and female staffers with diverse ethnic backgrounds will improve decision-making.

"It will make whatever is done better, stronger and more effective," she said.

As a vice president at a major North Carolina bank in the 1970s, Carlisle remembers when few women or minorities held positions of power. More recently, she was the only woman on the original board of the state lottery.

A longtime resident of the Triad, she said geographic diversity is also important for the newly elected governor.

Carlisle first met Perdue when she worked as a fundraiser and volunteer for Perdue's gubernatorial campaign. She was appointed to the lottery commission and the UNC-Greensboro board of trustees by Gov. Mike Easley.

(By staff writers Rob Christensen, Ryan Teague Beckwith, Mark Johnson and Ben Niolet and Washington correspondent Barbara Barrett)