The latest North Carolina PPP poll is out and President Obama is making a comeback.

Barack Obama’s popularity rise has come to North Carolina. For the first time since December of 2009 PPP finds more voters in the state approving than disapproving of him, at a 49/47 spread.

Increased optimism about the economy in the state is helping Obama’s revival. Last March a majority of voters in the state at 51% felt their personal economic situation had gotten worse since Obama took office compared to only 10% who thought it had improved. Now the portion feeling things have gotten worse for them is down to 47% and the one thinking things have gotten better is up to 16% with 37% expressing the sentiment that there’s been no change for them since the President was inaugurated.

In addition to voters reflecting more positively now on what has happened with the economy over the last two years, they’re also more optimistic about where things are going to be a year from now.

Obama’s popularity gain has been fueled by moderate voters.

A year ago his approval rating with moderates was 59%. Now it’s up to 69%. This improvement in his standing, along with the lukewarm reaction of voters in the state to the leading 2012 Republican Presidential contenders, has him in position to repeat his surprise North Carolina victory from 2008. He leads the four most likely GOP contenders at this point by margins ranging anywhere from 3 to 9 points in this month’s poll.

Without winning North Carolina, the Republican nominee for President will have a very tough time defeating the incumbent President as this map and analysis shows. 21 months from the general election is a long time in Presidential politics and the margin of victory for Obama is small and certainly not unrecoverable for the GOP.

Here are the polling results:

• Obama – 47% Vs. Romney – 44%
• Obama – 49% Vs. Huckabee – 45%
• Obama – 50% Vs. Gingrich – 44%
• Obama – 50% Vs. Palin – 41%

The full poll is here (Pdf)