North Carolina could be this year's Indiana
And the numbers are in. Obama's lead in early voting in North Carolina is ahead of what it was in 2008, and that's with the Romney team boost in early voters this time around. More great news is the that the state's African American community has an even higher turnout so far then in 2008 to the tune of +70,000 over our total in the last election. While it still may go to Romney on election day, the fact that it is even close leads me to believe that Obama has a fighting chance of winning the state.
Also keep in mind that North Carolina has a Democratic governor(albeit a lousy one) and Lt. Governor, while states like Florida, Ohio, and VA don't. Voter suppression efforts were squashed pretty early, and same day registration was available over a longer period of time. Another final gift that our governor, Bev Perdue, gave Obama was keeping the presidential ticket separate from the straight party ticket. Which means voters have to pick a president, and then vote straight party ticket. Democrats know that instate politics will switch over to Republican hands for the time being, but they didn't want an Obama campaign tied to that.
The result is that you have Pat McCory(R) beating Walter Dalton(D) by 10+ points in the race for govenor while Obama vs. Romney is tight.
I have been following this guy blog the past few days and he does a good job of breaking down the numbers. He has a little more optimism then I do though.
Daily Kos: NC Early Voting Day 17: Early Vote Ends With a Dem Turnout Bang - Now Comes E-DAY GOTV!
Overall point is, that if we keeping adding to the record turnout from African Americans, along with getting votes from Latinos and other immigrants that live in the corridor and surrounding rural areas, we might be able to squeak out a
for Obama in NC by a few thousand votes
