One week before voters go to the polls in North Carolina and Indiana, the outgoing Governor of the Tar Heel State is giving Hillary Clinton a surprise endorsement today in Raleigh.

Most people had written off North Carolina as a state that Clinton was not going to win.  But now with the endorsement today of Gov. Mike Easley, is there reason to think that could change?

The popular two term Governor had been a backer of Sen. John Edwards.  His endorsement certainly could help Clinton limit her losses in North Carolina, where she has been behind by double digits in most polls.

More importantly, Gov. Easley gives Clinton a superdelegate vote, which she badly needs to have any chance to overtake Obama.

North Carolina is an interesting state right now when you think about it.  The large black population there means that Obama has a big edge in the Democratic Primary next week.

But the North Carolina GOP has been shaking things up in recent days by airing an ad against the two Democrats running to replace Easley, using images of Rev. Jeremiah Wright to remind voters that they are backers of Obama.

Does racial politics work in the 2008 version of North Carolina?  That's hard to say.

I was there in 1990 when Jesse Helms unveiled his infamous "Hands" ad, which you can watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIyewCdXMzk

I remember when I saw it for the first time.  My mouth dropped wide open.  I knew right away that ad was going to win that race for the incumbent GOP Senator over Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt.

(We've heard a lot about the "rough" fight between Clinton and Obama.  Watch that ad and tell me if any of their stuff comes close to this one.)

Helms won that hotly contested race in 1990.  I was at his victory party that night in Raleigh and won't forget that anytime soon.  Some of the crowd made a point to harass the news media as we did our work.

I had people put out their cigarette butts on my tape recorder and pour beer on my notepad.  I was sort of surprised that there wasn't a dead animal in my hotel room bed.

I came back six years later when Helms and Gantt were having a rematch.  Helms ran almost a stealth campaign at times, as I couldn't get his staff to even tell me where they were holding a campaign event with less than a week to go before the elections.

Finally, one kid felt sorry for me that I was calling repeatedly to find out where the Senator was going to be campaigning.  He mumbled "Henderson." 

So I drove like hell up I-85, figuring that at least I might have a chance to find the Senator.  Sure enough, there were some State Police cars at one of the exits off the interstate, so I played dumb and asked for directions to the Senator's event.  They sent me right there.

I caught up with Gantt the next day at East Carolina University, where his communications people assured me they were going to hold their lead and win the second time around.

I smiled and dutifully took notes.

But I knew they were wrong.

I'm not saying the polls will be wrong this time with Obama and Clinton.  But my gut isn't so sure it's going to be a blowout either. 

The endorsement of Gov. Easley does make me think twice.

I remember catching up with Gantt at East Carolina University for a rally.

Some US Senate Democratic staffers were down in North Carolina helping him.  They assured me that his lead just a week out from Election Day would hold up.