Or why North Carolina really doesn’t and why Mitt Romney is in a bit of trouble. Analysis by John Putnam, a visiting assistant professor of political science at Davidson College:

It is still early and the dust is still very much settling from the conventions, but that movement is going to have to set in or begin to set in fairly quickly for Romney to effectively make up the ground in the five states (Ohio through Florida on the Spectrum below) necessary to cross the 270 electoral vote barrier. That and the fact that the race has been so stationary nationally and in many of the most important state is the bad news from the Republican nominee’s perspective.