Obama at a high in North Carolina ...

Obama now leads Romney by 5 points in North Carolina, 49-44. That's the largest lead we've found for him in monthly polling dating back to November of 2010. Obama has a 51-38 advantage with independents and is particularly strong with women (54-39), African Americans (90-7), voters under 30 (61-33), and folks in the Triangle (60-33).

The Republican nomination process has taken a huge toll on Romney's image in North Carolina. In February of 2011 voters in the state were almost evenly divided on him with 37% rating him favorably to 39% who had a negative opinion of him. Now that spread is a dreadful 29/58. His numbers with GOP voters are about where they've been, but he's seen a considerable drop in his appeal to Democrats and independents.

He was actually popular with independents at 45/36 last winter, now he is incredibly unpopular at 25/62. And what was once a decent amount of crossover appeal to Democrats with 23% seeing him favorably to 52% with a negative opinion is now a 12/77 spread. Romney may see some improvement in his numbers as conservative leaning voters start to unify around him, but for now they're pretty dreadful.
Obama's rise isn't completely because of Romney's unpopularity though. He's becoming stronger in his own right. 49% of North Carolinians say they approve of the job he's doing to 48% who disapprove. This is the first time since last June that he's been on positive ground in the state. Obama's numbers with Democrats and Republicans are about where they always are, but with independents he has majority approval at 52/42.

PPP is accurate, mostly.

My state voted in an anti-gay-marriage amendment, 61% to 39%.


Shameful.

Yeabut you can still marry your first cousin in NC, so all is not lost.

But ya can't marry your "double cousin", whatever that is.

That's her twin sister. If your cousins are twins, you gotta marry the right one, 'cuz you can't marry the double too also.

Once a bright spot for President Barack Obama, North Carolina is now more like a political migraine less than four months before Democrats open the party's national convention in Charlotte.

The causes are plenty.

Labor unions, a core Democratic constituency, are up in arms. Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue isn't running for re-election; Democrats say she was likely to lose. The state Democratic Party is in disarray over an explosive sexual harassment scandal. Voters recently approved amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage, a position that runs counter to Obama's. And unemployment in the state remains persistently high.

"Nobody can sugarcoat the fact that we got problems here," said Gary Pearce, a former Democratic consultant who was an adviser to former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt. Pearce was referring specifically to state party woes but could have been talking about any of the troubles here for Democrats.

But, he added: "I think the greatest strength that the party has is President Obama. And he's the thing that people will rally around."

I wish I could say you were wrong, MGV. I think Obama will barely carry the state, but without so-called coattails.

Do you read BlueNC?

PPP is accurate, mostly.

My state voted in an anti-gay-marriage amendment, 61% to 39%.

Shameful.

President Obama won’t be seeing any backlash in [redacted] for his recent declaration of support for gay marriage. 77% of [redacted] voters believe gay couples should either be allowed to marry or form civil unions. And support isn’t just limited to liberal voters—in addition to 94% support from Democrats, 63% of Republicans and 83% of independents back gay marriages or civil unions.

79% of Hispanics support either gay marriages or civil unions, putting to rest theories suggesting Obama would lose support from the mostly Catholic demographic for his new stance on gay marriage. In addition, 85% of the other racial minorities which make up about 11% of the electorate support either marriage rights or civil unions for gay couples.

I expect Republicans to attempt to make gay marriage a major reason for NC voters to support Rmoney over Obama this fall ... The Amendment 1 results have to appear very inviting for the Rmoney campaign.