According to Public Policy Polling, North Carolina is definitely "in play" for Obama 2012:
North Carolinians narrowly approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as President and as a result it appears he should once again be very competitive in the state in 2012. 48% of voters like the job he's doing to 46% who disapprove. The key to his solid numbers this month is that he's on positive ground with independents at a 46/43 spread.
This doesn't come as a big surprise. Republicans made gains in last year's midterm elections, but those were in spite of the state's rapidly changing demographics. From 2000 to 2010, North Carolina's population increased by 18.5 percent, to just over 9.5 million people. The state's African American population increased by 17.9 percent to roughly 2 million people, and the state's Latino population increased by 111.1 percent, to roughly 800,000 people. In total, North Carolina is 40 percent non-white, a huge increase from 2000. Moreover, the growing white population is concentrated in the eight-county "research triangle," home to North Carolina State University, Duke University, and UNC-Chapel Hill. These whites are more liberal than those in more rural parts of the state and supported Barack Obama in large numbers.
In other words, it's very possible -- if not likely -- that 2008 was the beginning of the end for Republican dominance in the Tar Heel State.
