In the last statewide elections in North Carolina, Democrats held onto the governor’s mansion and the Assembly and won back the state Senate. Now new polling suggests Democrats are becoming more popular in the state, while Republicans, especially the state’s two nitwit U.S. senators, are becoming less so:

Approval/Disapproval

N.C. Gov. Mike Easley (D) 50/33
Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) 36/36
Sen.Richard Burr (R) 32/34 (NC’s junior senator)
Iraq surge 40/57

And:

67 percent of voters in North Carolina want out of Iraq within the next year.

While North Carolina has always had its share of baccky-chewing rednecks, it has also always had a sizable “sensible middle” that has kept the rednecks at bay. It appears that the war and the GOP’s disastrous performance over the past six years may have energized the radical center in the Old North State.