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RALEIGH, North Carolina — Hillary Clinton’s long odds in the Tar Heel state got a little shorter today, as she picked up the endorsement of popular North Carolina governor Mike Easley. A former Edwards supporter, the two-term executive was swayed by Clinton’s focus on issues he’s been passionate about – including education and innovation.

In announcing his endorsement, Easley said he was also drawn to her strength and experience. “There’s nothing I love more than a strong powerful woman, so I’ve been in hog heaven today,” he said. “This lady right here makes Rocky Balboa look like a pansy.”

Easley told the small crowd gathered at North Carolina State University that he was looking for a candidate who could turn the country around immediately – and took a jab at North Carolina frontrunner Barack Obama in the process. “There is a lot of yes we can and yes we should going around. Hillary Clinton is ready to deliver,” he said. That’s the difference. She’s ready to deliver today. Immediately.”

While the campaign has downplayed expectations in the state, Senator Clinton has spent a considerable amount of time here – targeting military families with a series of events featuring North Carolina native and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Hugh Shelton, working class families concerned about the economy, and women with an event at Wake Forest University with Maya Angelou.

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GRAHAM, NC — Hillary Clinton says John McCain’s letter to North Carolina Republicans asking them to pull an ad featuring controversial pastor Jeremiah Wright didn’t go far enough to get the ads off the airwaves.

In the Tar Heel state, the GOP is attacking Lt Gov Beverly Eaves Perdue and Treasurer Richard Moore for endorsing Barack Obama — using a long segment of one of the more inflammatory speeches by Obama’s former reverend to paint the two local Democrats with the same anti-American brush. And in Mississippi, a congressional candidate has a similar ad attacking his Democratic opponent using Wright and Obama.

McCain wrote to the North Carolina party urging them to remove the ad from the air, but the party refused.

Senator Clinton told reporters today that McCain needs to go further. “I believe that if Senator McCain were serious, he would do more than send a letter,” she said. “He is the putative nominee. I think he could very clearly tell the North Carolina party, tell the Mississippi party that he would not tolearte these kinds of advertisements, and I’m waiting to see whether he does that.”

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WILMINGTON, NC — First she said that if Barack Obama didn’t like the questions he received from debate moderators, she’d debate him Lincoln-Douglas style. Now, Hillary Clinton says she’ll even take the show on the road.

Obama told reporters this week that he’s ruled out another debate before the next round of primaries, moderators or no moderators — saying “Rather than being in a studio, I want to make sure that we’re reaching out to folks where they live.”

Senator Clinton’s response? “We could even do it on the back of a flatbed truck, doesn’t even have to be in some fancy studio somewhere,” she told the cheering crowd at an outdoor rally in the shadows of the USS North Carolina.

Clinton said she was “very, very regretful” that Obama would not agree to a new debate in the Tar Heel state . “He turned down the debate that I agreed to here in North Carolina,” she said. “There were 20,000 people who had already emailed in for tickets. There was that much interest.”

“I know his supporters say well, they didn’t like the debate in Philadelphia. The questions were kind of mean and they were sort of tough. You know, I’ve gotta say, tough questions in a debate is nothing like the tough decisions you’ve got to make in the White House. And I think that this state deserves a debate.”

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When asked by reporters in Indianapolis this morning about Senator Clinton’s offer to debate sans moderator, Obama noted he only had nine more days to campaign in Indiana and North Carolina. “Rather than being in a studio, I want to make sure that we’re reaching out to folks where they live, answering their questions and having as many interactions as possible,” he explained.

But don’t rule out a debate after May 6th - “You know, I’m more than happy to consider something after Indiana and North Carolina. At this point, we just don’t have a lot of time,” Obama said.

In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Barack Obama definitively told host Chris Wallace he would not debate Hillary Clinton before the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on May 6th, but insisted he’s not “ducking” a debate with Clinton.

The candidates have met 21 times to debate during the course of this primary contest; the last one in Philadelphia focused heavily on Obama’s campaign gaffes, which prompted him to note the next day during a North Carolina town hall, “It took us 45 minutes before we even started talking about a single issue that matters to the American people.” Obama also said it was typical Washington. “They like stirring up controversy and they like playing gotcha games, and getting us to attack each other. And I have to say Senator Clinton looked in her element,” he said at the time.

Clinton said he was “complaining” - not so, Obama said. “Did you hear me complain?” he asked a reporter looking for a response. “Who’s been complaining about the media for the last six months?”

But Obama never responded to a CBS News offer to debate Clinton again in North Carolina on the 27th. When asked about it by a Raleigh voter, Obama replied, “We’re trying to figure out what our schedule looks like. But, I’ll be honest with you, you know we now had 21…I could deliver Senator Clinton’s lines, she could, I’m sure, deliver mine, so what we’ve got to figure out how we fit in campaigning actively both here in North Carolina and Indiana…we’re just trying to figure what’s the best way to reach as many constituents as possible in a relatively short period of time.”

CBS News has since cancelled the debate, but Senator Clinton has repeatedly challenged Obama to debate prior to the May 6th primaries. In the past, Obama has said the more time he spends with voters, the better they get to know him, and when you’re competing against the “Clinton brand,” that’s important.

Read the Wallace/Obama exchange below the jump.

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JACKSONVILLE, NC — Hillary Clinton stepped up the pressure on her Democratic rival to agree to a new round of one-on-one debates before the May 6th primaries — accusing Barack Obama of ducking her in North Carolina.

Telling the crowd that she’s answered some 14,000 questions from North Carolinians as part of her “NC Ask Me” ad campaign, Clinton said “the only question I can’t answer is why Senator Obama won’t debate me in North Carolina.”

“I said I’ll go anywhere, any time to have a debate,” she said.

Flanked by retired admirals and generals outside a fire station in the shadows of Camp Lejeune, Sen Clinton wrapped up her military-themed event with a plea for help — but couldn’t resist yet another debate dig. “I know I have an uphill struggle here in North Carolina, but i feel good,” she said.

“If you do have questions, go to the NC Ask Me website. ask your questions. Ask why Senator Obama won’t debate me, and let’s work to try to find a time and a place where that can take place.”

An Obama aide points out that he did agree to a time and a place for a North Carolina debate — accepting an invitation to a CBS forum set for April 19th. It was Senator Clinton who declined that invitation since, she said, the date fell on the second day of Passover.

Clinton’s explicit argument is that the issues they debated in Pennsylvania differ from the issues voters in Indiana and North Carolina face every day, and deserve to be discussed. But implicit in her debate push is the recognition that forcing another poor debate performance out of Obama is one of the only avenues still available for Clinton to wrest the nomination away from the frontrunner.

With the campaign facing a cash crunch even after their $10 million day on Wednesday, reaching 11 million people as she did in the Philadelphia debate without spending a penny is also an attractive proposition.

The Obama campaign looks like it is going to make the North Carolina GOP TV ad a bigger issue in the campaign…

Obama campaign spokesman, Hari Sevugan, just released this statement: “The fact that Senator McCain can’t get his own party to take down this misleading, personal attack ad raises serious questions about his promise to the American people that he will run a civil, respectful campaign.”

During a media availability in Indiana yesterday, Obama said, “I take (McCain and the RNC) at their word and assume that if John McCain thinks that it’s an inappropriate ad that he can get them to pull it down since he’s their nominee and standard bearer.”

McCain and advisers have condemned the ad and said for two days that they are doing everything within their power to get the state party to pull back the ad, however the party released a statement Thursday afternoon declaring their intention to air the spot next week.

“Our aim is to tell the truth and ask difficult questions. We will continue to do so,” NC state party chairman Linda Daves said. “I have great respect and admiration for Senator McCain. He will be a great President when he is elected in November. As State Party Chairman, I serve in a dual role. Not only do I support our party’s candidate for President of the United States, I also have a duty to see that Republicans are elected across the state of North Carolina. This ad opposes two Democrat candidates for Governor of North Carolina. It poses a legitimate question about judgment for which the people of North Carolina deserve an answer.”

She also accused Democrats of “trying to inject race into the ad,” which she said is “despicable and wrong.”

“This ad has completely nothing to do with race. It is completely factual and contains no information that has already received a public airing…if Senator Clinton had a pastor who made these same anti-American statements and the Democrat candidates for Governor endorsed her, we would be running the same ad,” she said.

****UPDATE**** McCain camp responds with some heat:

“Barack Obama has time and again refused to step forward and personally condemn repeated attacks on John McCain’s character and integrity by the Chairman of the DNC — not a state party — nor outrageous attacks by his surrogates Sen. Jay Rockefeller and Ed Schultz. We’ll start taking lessons from Barack Obama when he displays one ounce of the decency and courtesy that John McCain has shown in this campaign.” — McCain spokesman Brian Rogers

FAYETTEVILLE, NC — Hillary Clinton acknowledged that she has an uphill battle in North Carolina, but insisted today that she’s going to fight for every vote. “This is going to be a hard fought election here in North Carolina. I know that I’m starting off behind. I get it,” she said. “But I’m still going to work as hard as I can to reach as many voters as I can, to talk to you about the issues that are important.

”

The first step in the strategy today: an event to talk military issues with an introduction by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Clinton supporter Gen Hugh Shelton. North Carolina has a large military population, and Hillary has the backing of 35 flag officers as well as 8 years on the Senate Armed Services Committee to pitch to military families.

“Here we are, and we’re near two great bases with Ft Bragg and Pope, and we’ve got lots of people in this audience who have served or are servinr, or are spouses or family members of those who have served,” she said. “You’re going to help pick the next president, aren’t you?”

Step two, it seems, may be subtle attacks on Barack Obama’s disinclination to debate. A CBS forum set for April 27th was canceled after Obama failed to accept an invitation in time for preparations to be made; Clinton declined an invitation for a debate in the state prior to the Pennsylvania primary, saying it fell during passover.

Today, however, she proclaimed herself ready and willing to square off with Obama.  People of North Carolina deserve a debate,” she said.
” I have said I’ll debate any time, anywhere. I’m so sleep deprived, it doesn’t matter. Any time, anywhere. I’ll show up.”

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New Orleans, LA — Sen. McCain repeated his demand that the North Carolina Republican party pull a TV ad using statements from Barack Obama’s controversial pastor, calling Thursday for all GOPers in the state to echo his call and repudiate their own leadership.

“I cannot in my role dictate to the North Carolina Republican Party what their message is but I can condemn it,” McCain said during a media availability following his tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. “I can appeal to the overwhelming majority of Republicans in North Carolina who also repudiate that kind of activity and I am calling on them to repudiate the people the small handful of people that have refused to understand that we are the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan and that party–that Republican Party–there is no room for this kind of activity.”

The ad, which declares that Obama is “just too extreme for North Carolina,” was launched by the party on Wednesday.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is calling on McCain to exercise “real leadership” in getting the ad pulled.

“This is a test of leadership for John McCain,” Dean said Thursday. “If he can’t pick up the phone and make members of his own party stop airing a television ad he claims to oppose, how can he lead our country through an economic crisis or the war in Iraq? After shifting his positions on gun control, immigration and tax cuts throughout this campaign, McCain should not equivocate on this issue. Making a show of releasing your emails to the press is not leadership. If he is serious, he will get this ad pulled.”

Asked if he would limit the state party’s role at the GOP convention this summer if it continues running the spot, McCain was reluctant to “start making threats.”

“Lets see if they respond not only to what I have to say and virtually the entire leadership of the entire Republican Party but also lets see what average hardworking dedicated Republicans in the state of North Carolina are able to achieve too because I know they agree with me,” McCain said.

Following stops in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, the senator, his staff, Secret Service detail, and press corps waited on board the Obama campaign plane on a busy Philadelphia airport tarmac. Barack Obama was set to fly to Evansville, Indiana, to hold a post-Pennsylvania primary rally, but the 757 pilot announced over the PA system that we were number 18 for takeoff. After a collective groan in the cabin, the pilot announced he’d made three phone calls to try to move us up in the queue. Just a few minutes later, the pilot informed us we were number 3 for takeoff. Chalk it up to the perks of running for president.

Obama and crew were “wheels up” minutes after polls closed in Pennsylvania for the next state up to vote in the Democratic race on May 6th. During the nearly two hour flight, senior advisor David Axelrod and communications director Robert Gibbs dropped by the press section of the plane, donned in “Stop the Drama, Vote Obama” T-shirts they purchased for $10 a pop in Philadelphia. Obama, they said, was napping in the front of the cabin, and had not been following the returns.

Axelrod and Gibbs didn’t know much – only what they read on their blackberries before we took off, and when we left, the race was still too close to call. But as early returns favored Clinton, Axelrod observed, “We’ve been very clear from the beginning that we didn’t come in with oversized expectations…as this race began, we were greeted with a declaration of the spokesperson for the Clinton campaign that she was unbeatable in the state of Pennsylvania, essentially that we were wasting our time, so we thought otherwise, and you know, we’ll see what happens.”

But Axelrod was confident in his campaign’s current position - more states, more pledged delegates, and more of the popular vote than Hillary Clinton. “If you don’t think we’ve done well enough, ask the Clinton folks if they’d like to trade places with us,” he said.

Of course this was not a good night for Obama. When the frontrunner offered his congratulations to Senator Clinton during his Evansville rally, the 7,000-strong crowd enthusiastically booed. “No, no,” Obama pleaded. “She ran a terrific race.”

Just after the speech concluded, Axelrod made an appearance in the press workspace – in a button down shirt this time. This was a “home game” for Clinton, he told reporters. “We got the result that we anticipated,  and now we’re on—we’re here tonight, we’re on to North Carolina.”

With no end in sight in this Democratic brawl, Axelrod noted (prior to knowing his candidate lost), “There’s a sense of urgency about the time we’re losing, and a sense of urgency that we not you know savage each other to the benefit of Senator McCain. And as it becomes clearer that we have a delegate lead that is harder to overcome, or close to impossible over time, then the question [is] - If Senator Clinton has a legitimate chance to win the nomination then she has every reason to stay in, but if her only strategy is to try to tear down Senator Obama, then I think that will make a lot of Democrats uncomfortable.”

The campaign doesn’t think it’s likely that she will be able to pull this off, and said so in a memo emailed to reporters following Clinton’s victory. “As he has done in every state, Barack Obama campaigned hard to pick up as much support and as many delegates as possible and was able to stave off Clinton from achieving a significant pledged delegate gain from Pennsylvania. The bottom line is that the Pennsylvania outcome does not change [the] dynamic of this lengthy primary. While there were 158 delegates at stake there, there are fully 157 up for grabs in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries on May 6.”