Obama's Battleground Game.

The article looks at the 2012 U.S. presidential election, focusing on the campaign of incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama in North Carolina. It notes that Obama won North Carolina in the 2008 election, but by a very narrow margin, with support from many first-time voters, mostly African Americans and youth. The author analyzes favorable and unfavorable factors for the Obama campaign in 2012. Favorable factors include the state's high share of African Americans and the movement of people into the state. Unfavorable ones include its high unemployment rate and political problems of Democratic Governors Mike Easley and Bev Perdue. He describes the Obama campaign's ground-level organization of volunteers making phone calls and says it may be decisive in the election.