Erin McPike takes a good look at North Carolina, and finds a president who's still pushing hard for the 15 electoral votes, and a challenger who seems to be taking things for granted.
Since his inauguration 3½ years ago, Obama has made 13 stops in the state, several of which were part of a jobs tour in October 2011. His visits have been in the central and western parts of the state near its major cities; he gave a speech on the economy in Mount Holly (near Charlotte) in March and another one on student loans in April at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
By contrast, Romney has been to North Carolina just three times this year -- he visited Charlotte twice for public events and Raleigh for a fundraiser. But he doesn’t have the same familiarity with Carolina voters and hasn’t traveled outside of Obama’s stronghold of the two biggest cities. And that has puzzled some Democrats monitoring the presumptive nominee’s activity in the state. They wonder: Why not go into the some of the regions where he needs to turn out the vote?
Of course, Romney has held a consistent, though very small, lead in the state throughout the year, but Obama has held consistent but very small leads in a host of battleground states, as well.... and yet Obama doesn't seem to have the same kind of overconfidence in those states.
