Poll: Perry Leads Obama in North Carolina

That “call” that Rick Perry is hearing from the voters to run for president just got a little louder. A swing state poll has him looking good to topple Obama.

Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry leads Barack Obama 45 percent to 42 percent among North Carolina voters in a potential presidential matchup, according to a new poll released by the Civitas Institute.

Forty-five percent of voters said they are leaning towards or would vote for Gov. Rick Perry if the election for President of the United States was being held today and the candidates were Perry, the Republican, and Barack Obama, the Democrat.  Forty-two percent said they are leaning towards or would vote for Obama, and 9 percent said they are undecided.

“For the President to be trailing an unannounced candidate in a state he barely won in 2012 has to be concerning for the Obama team,” said Civitas Institute President Francis De Luca.

Indeed. And the sample in this poll makes it nearly but not quite a poll of likely voters, since respondents had to have either voted in the last two presidential elections or registered to vote for the first time in the 2008 election. Add in that Obama won North Carolina in 2008 and this poll gets very interesting, even though it’s only one poll.

This polls tells us a lot, not just about Rick Perry. The MSM gushed that Obama “drew a new map” in 2008 (see that link in the paragraph above if you don’t believe me). As it turns out, Obama didn’t redraw anything. The pre-2008 red state/blue state map looks like it’s coming back, but given the census results, the red states gained power while the blue states lost power. And purplish states like Pennsylvania are trending red thanks to Obama’s massive overreaches.

When Gov. Perry jumps in, this election is a whole new ballgame. He has a record that is 180 degrees out from the president’s and from most other big state governors. He doesn’t have the MittCare baggage. He has firmly rejected cap and trade and has fought off the administration’s focused economic attacks on his state. Perry brings the Tea Party, business conservatives and social conservatives together. The North Carolina poll shows that, even though he has low name ID outside Texas, he will be able to tap into the country’s desire to change directions and run on a record that shows he can deliver.