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With No Challenger, Burr's In No Trouble 

By any number of metrics, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr could be the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country. His once Republican-leaning state looks rather blue after the 2008 elections, and recent polls show Burr anything but safe.

Still, Burr is likeable -- nothing like his distant relative, Vice President Aaron Burr -- and he lacks the kind of issues that doomed former senator Elizabeth Dole's re-election bid last year. Perhaps most important to the first-term senator's survival prospects, though, is that no top-tier Democrat has stepped forward to challenge him. . . .

Stepping up his visibility, Burr is leading the fight this week against a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco, which is an important piece of the state's economy. He's also joined forces on a health care plan with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

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