There's a direction to American presidential elections.
We spend months thinking about the big topics.
Democracy, the economy, immigration, wars abroad, culture wars at home.
But as the election gets closer, our focus starts to narrow.
We wonder less about what Americans are thinking
and more about what Pennsylvanians and Arizonans are thinking.
And then we start to wonder about what people in Allegheny county or Maricopa county are thinking.
And the tighter the polls are, the further down we go.
And it is tight.
Right now.
It's close.
Over about half a dozen swing states, but the closest of all of them,
and one that has a very good chance of being what pollsters call the tipping point,
meaning the state that could decide the election is North Carolina.
And this will give you an understanding of just how close the presidential race is
in the great state of North Carolina,
in the Tar Heel state.
Look at this.
It's Trump, but by less than a point.
We're talking, like, 0.2 percentage points.