That’s a total of 51 percent of North Carolina whites who don’t know, or don’t believe, that Obama was born in America. Back in July, I estimated, based on previous polls, that as many as 70 percent of white Southerners doubted Obama’s American citizenship. North Carolina was actually one of the less racially-polarized states in the South last year, with 35 percent of white voters backing Obama over McCain. By contrast, only 10 percent of white voters in Alabama went for Obama.

And among which voters is the knowledge of Obama’s birthplace the sketchiest?

The poll is here (PDF); results are below the fold.

For the record, Hawaii was annexed by the United States on July 6, 1898, and it became the 50th state on Aug. 21, 1959.

Roll Call (subsription only) points out that the measure has forced an odd political alliance between freshman Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan (N.C.) and a long-time foe.

Not only is she likely to be the only Democrat to oppose the bill, she will also be fighting side by side with Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who campaigned hard to prevent her election last fall.

“I will not stand idly by while the [Food and Drug Administration] is put in charge of such a critical industry to North Carolina,” said Hagan, who believes the bill amounts to a de facto ban on tobacco products.

To be clear, the bill is not a ban on tobacco products. Instead, it would authorize the FDA to restrict marketing tactics and force tobacco companies to disclose the ingredients in their products. It would also empower the agency to place limits on ingredients found to be harmful, including nicotine.

No doubt that would threaten some jobs in tobacco country. The question is, are they worth protecting an industry estimated to kill 400,000 Americans each year?

Nielsen released its numbers for the top 56 media markets in the country today. These metropolitan areas had the highest inauguration viewership yesterday:

And these had the lowest viewership:

So people who could most easily come see the inauguration in person — those from D.C., Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina — watched from their sofas, while people who live more than 1,000 miles away either made the trek to the capital or didn’t bother to tune in.

Even stranger, the three metropolitan areas at the bottom of this list are arguably the three most liberal in the country: Seattle, Portland and San Francisco.

I suppose it’s possible that people from the D.C. area are simply more politically engaged — much more engaged — than their counterparts from farther afield, but this still strikes me as deeply strange.

Anyone have a better explanation? I await your comments …

Some spots are short, upbeat videos aiming for mass appeal. This week’s viral hit, “Make History,” for example, broke into YouTube’s top 10 this week. With peppy instrumentals by Velvetron, the spot shows people headed off to vote. Sen. Barack Obama only makes a brief cameo, in a drawing on a post-it note.

On Thursday night, the campaign released a video also aiming for a national audience, Choices, that dramatically reprises memorable lines from Obama’s speeches through the entire campaign.

Other recent videos, however, are locally targeted. One particularly dry segment this week features a monotone briefing by N.C. state director Marc Farinella, detailing surprising progress in the state and appealing for more volunteers next week.

Local or national, most of these videos are aimed squarely at Obama supporters, not those last undecideds that Obama targeted with his paid infomercial. To that end, the campaign has focused on its supporters and volunteers — communing, connecting and inspiring through any medium available.

It looks like it’s paying off. In a new interview with Time magazine, Obama strategist David Axelrod stands by the campaign’s goal of deploying eight million volunteers on Election Day, which would be a record-breaking show of force.

This YouTube push is one more way for the Obama campaign to reach every last volunteer as the clock runs out.

For comparison, I dug up a presentation (PDF) by Obama campaign manager David Plouffe from the same month.

The result: The Obama campaign was spot-on in its assessment of its prospects, while the McCain people were way off the mark. Let’s take a look.

First, here’s Davis’ perceived electoral map, just four months ago:

Looking at today’s RealClearPolitics map (below), we can see that every single toss-up state is now in Sen. Barack Obama’s column. While all the “Lean GOP” states have held, three of the “Solid GOP” states — Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana — have turned blue:

Meanwhile, Plouffe was announcing the Obama team’s plan to turn these red states blue:

Lo and behold, every one of these is now in Obama’s column, mostly by substantial margins.

Another slide in Plouffe’s presentation indicated the states in which the Obama campaign would be advertising early and extensively:

Admittedly, a few of these are still unlikely to go for Obama — Alaska, for instance, effectively came off the table when Gov. Sarah Palin joined Sen. John McCain’ticket — but for the most part, Obama’s strategy paid off.

Here’s proof:

Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana, which McCain considered in the bag, now lean Obama by 7, 2 and 2 points, respectively, according to RealClearPolitics.

Connecticut, which McCain hoped to nab, is going for Obama by 19 points.

Some people at the establishment heckled the Illinois senator, calling him a socialist and yelling at him to leave the restaurant. From the pool report:

[Obama] entered the barbecue joint where an older and majority-white clientele of dozens was eating lunch after church services. At the other end of the restaurant, Diane Fanning, 54, who works at a discount club, began yelling: “Socialist, socialist, socialist -– get out of here!” There was a lot of noise and excitement and positive reception as well… The gentleman next to Fanning, Lenox Bramble, 76, flashed an angry look at her. “Be civil, be courteous,” he admonished her.  Another woman, Cecilia Hayslip, 61, yelled back at Fanning (per Reuters), “At least he’s not a warmonger!”

Mr. Bramble told Reuters’ pool reporter that he wasn’t voting for Obama because he didn’t think he had enough experience. Bramble’s wife, Kit, 75, said after meeting Obama, “He was very nice” but added she’d been a conservative Republican since Barry Goldwater’s era and she wouldn’t vote for Obama….

Later, Obama came to the long table where Fanning and other members of the local First Presbyterian Church were gathered. He held out his hand to her to shake it and asked, “How are you, ma’am?” but she declined to shake.

He spoke at length with many of the other parishioners at the long banquet table, however, and got a much friendlier reception as he spoke about health care, taxes and Social Security. Fanning told the pool reporter, “Some of them are just nicer than I am. I know how some of them think.” But several of her fellow churchgoers said their support was genuine. Betty Waylett, 76, told him, “You’re doing a great job.” She told the pool reporter she is a Republican but will vote for Obama because she likes the way he speaks and his manner.

Heckling in North Carolina is not limited to Obama. A new video today from the Washington Times shows Republican protesters heckling their fellow citizens in line at an early voting station in Fayetteville, just a few hours after Obama’s trip there.

“At the polling site was a group of loud and angry protesters who shouted and mocked the voters as they walked in,” explains the accompanying report.  “Nearly all were white….no one held anything back. People were shouting about Obama’s acknowledged cocaine use as a young man, abortion and one man used the word ‘terrorist.’”

These are troubling incidents in the homestretch of a tough campaign, especially when crowds gather to yell and potentially intimidate people as they exercise their voting rights.