Is North Carolina already out of reach for President Obama?

(Image credit: Sean Meyers/ZUMA Press/Corbis)

last updated 8 January 2015

In 2008, President Obama became the first Democratic candidate to win North Carolina since 1976. But this time around, polls have long shown that the purplish state is likely to return to its red roots. And since Mitt Romney clobbered Obama in the first presidential debate, the trend lines have only gotten gloomier for Team POTUS. It looks like Team Romney has all but wrapped things up in the Tar Heel State, says Peter Hamby at CNN:

In a clear sign the campaign is confident about putting North Carolina back in the Republican column this year, Mitt Romney's campaign is moving its spokesman out of the state and plans to shift more staffers out in the coming days.