I don't remember North Carolina being considered a battleground state

[rucky]

until election day.

Did I miss something, or did they add it to the list because of the close vote?

Or maybe they added it so they didn't have to say that Obama swept the battleground states?

[LisaL]

1. Obama won it in 2008.

So it was considered a battleground state.

[oldhippydude]

2. i have been following it all cycle... seems prominent to me

[BainsBane]

3. You missed it

It has been discussed as a battleground state but one that Obama didn't have much of a chance of getting until the convention. Some polls even had him up there until the first debate. He never needed it, but he did carry NC in 2008. It was always a reach.

[John2]

10. North Carolina

wasn't a reach. It was close all the time. Romney won by a little over 75,000 votes. Both sides got more votes than in 2008. President Obama carried every large urban area in North Carolina by a significant margin. He won the white women vote in North Carolina by getting 38 percent of their vote in 2008. In 2012, that fell to only 30 percent which was even lower than white men. White men stayed the same at 32 percent. So President Obama ended up just getting 31 percent of the white vote in North Carolina when he carried 35 percent in 2008. So this is where his coalition fell in North Carolina.

[Marsala]

4. It was frequently mentioned as the only battleground state where Romney had a consistent lead

And it wound up being the only battleground state that Romney actually won.

[karmaqueen]

5. The polls had us ahead a few times.

We need to work on getting the nuts out of local government they voted in last election. They helped defeat Obama this time.they are REAL CRAZIES!!!I have a feeling they will be showing their true colors soon.. We are very close to being BLUE!

[nc4bo]

6. Blame it on the damn Yankee infiltrators and carpetbagging types.

We're a growin' a pair of blue balls. They're small but they are growing!

[hollysmom]

7. my sister says it is always the racists moving down keeping them red

She says the biggest racists are the recent movees. Now she moved down 30 years ago. I still say it is the churches down there preaching hate.

[nc4bo]

8. Don't mean to offend anyone but I gotta tell you

The churches need to pay some taxes. Seems like any joe blow can start up a church and talk a bunch of crap. Just slap a cross on the door and go.

The message of hate and intolerance is horrible. I stay as far away from them as I can and refuse to talk all that Jesus saves/you're going to burn in hell forever and ever crap and won't tolerate spoken to me.

I'm probably considered a heathen.

[cleduc]

9. Obama was quite competitive and a tad ahead at times

but he did slip in the NC polls in May when he announced his support for gay marriage
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/nc/north_carolina_romney_vs_obama-1784.html

For much of this cycle since May, it was regarded as a tossup and then sometimes, lean Ronney.

After early voting, I thought they had a shot
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/05/1156476/-NC-Pre-EDAY-Analysis-All-the-Data-About-NC-Screams-Tossup-Except-Conventional-Wisdom-GOTV

I was actually a little surprised he didn't finish closer and wonder if there were any shenanigans with the voting (though that's a long, long way from an accusation).