As an expatriated North Carolinian, this is both heartening and discouraging — in other words, normal for Tar Heel politics:
If Obama gained support of just 6% of these North Carolina Dems, he would be leading in current state polls.

In North Carolina, Public Policy has Obama pulling into a tie with McCain (they had McCain up 4 percent last week) while Rasmussen has McCain’s lead down to just 3 percent (they had McCain up 6 percent last month). Some figured that North Carolina was off the table once McCain picked Palin, but that is clearly not the case.

The Public Policy poll is the first one to show Obama tied in the state since April. Public Policy also has Bob Barr doing relatively well in North Carolina, getting 5percent of the vote. They are attributing Obama’s improvement in the state to economic concerns.

One major potential sign for concern for McCain is that both of these polls have Obama getting less than 80 percent of the Democratic vote. If he improves his support among Democrats by just 6 percent or so, he would be leading both of these polls. Obama has yet to lead in any North Carolina poll. This certainly explains why McCain is now shifting resources into North Carolina, as the state is very much in play.

A recent CNN poll suggested “that 40 percent of white Americans hold at least a partly negative view toward blacks, including more than a third of white Democrats and independents. A small percentage of voters — 2.5 percent of those surveyed — said they may turn away from Obama because of his race.”