This American Spectator piece is dead on. Few people fully realize how pivotal North Carolina is to President Obama’s reelection. North Carolina will likely be the most pivotal battleground state in the nation this year, or one among just three.

Check out the map of the 2004 election below. If Obama wins all the states Kerry won in 2004, which as you can see is almost guaranteed to happen given how liberal they are, all he needs to get to 269 electoral votes is North Carolina and Virginia or North Carolina and Colorado.

Obama just needs to win the blue states Kerry won in 2004 plus two more to get to 269.

… the final battleground is likely to be North Carolina, Virginia, and Colorado. Democrats figured this out long ago. That’s why they’re holding their convention in Charlotte,” the Spectator article says.

Who in North Carolina will decide which way the country goes and whether Obama is shown the exit?

“The more than 45,000 highly educated employees that make an average salary of $75,000 …” and work in Research Triangle Park. And of course, their counterparts in Charlotte.

Not said in the article is this. The reason that just 45,000 voters in the Triangle now have such power is because of the roughly 100,000 new black voters the Charlotte area picked up over the last decade. These solidly Democratic voters turned the state from red in presidential elections to purple and set it up to tilt. Now it is young professionals who will decide the balance.

The article is dead on about this:

These newly successful people have become the pivotal bloc that swings the state between Republicans and Democrats. They are not committed to either party. They are not terribly involved with social issues. Their main worry is the economy. If Republicans make birth control and separation of church and state the major issue, they will go Democratic. If the Democrats mess up the economy and produce $4.50 gas and 8.3 percent unemployment, they will swing Republican. That will probably decide the 2012 election.

And who is the man the Spectator, a hard right publication, says Republicans should send to fight the fight? That would be Mitt Romney, hands down says the Spectator, an interesting point of view, again, for a hard right publication.

So the question for November will be this: “Who can reach out to these educated, upscale people who are going to be the deciding votes in the few state that are going to decide the election?”The answer for Republicans is very clear. Mitt Romney’smain appeal is to these upscale voters. In every primary, he has run best in urban and suburban areas. He appeals to people with a college education, he appeals to women, he appeals to the more affluent. These voters are not scared by his Mormonism but they are put off by social issues and are worried about the economy. Romney scores well on all counts.

Now all you’ve got to do is watch NC polls to figure out which way this thing will go …