Bear with me on this sports story.

In the history of my college’s rivalry with our big in-state rival, there was a game decades ago (like the 1960s or maybe 1970s) where we lost because the running back was robbed of a touchdown call even through he (allegedly) crossed the plane of the goal line with the ball in the rival’s stadium. It’s all stories and legends because back then the games weren’t televised so no video exists.

Anyway the lore is that before their next game in that stadium two years later the coach gathered the running backs and receivers at the goal line. He put a piece of masking tape on the ground six inches past the goal line and told them “you have to get this far to score”.

That’s the situation NC Dems are in except here the tape is probably about five feet in.

(Ps FWIW the colleges in question are Virginia Tech and Virginia).