A look behind Perdue's numbers

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling is warning about reading too much doom-and-gloom into the latest poll numbers for Gov. Beverly Perdue.

The latest numbers, provided by PPP, show that 27 percent of North Carolina voters approve of the job Perdue is doing, while 52 percent disapprove. Those numbers are only slightly better than the month before, when Perdue had a 25 percent approval rating.

Jensen acknowledges that the numbers are bad, but maybe not as bad as they first appear, particularly if you consider she's not up for re-election until 2012.

"I have no doubt she would lose if she had an election today, but a lot of things can change in that period of time," Jensen writes.

Jensen says a deeper look at the numbers reveal that a lot of North Carolina voters don't feel strongly about Perdue - either for or against her.

"That means she's not 'finished' just seven months into her term, but it also means she has a lot of work to do to gain popularity with all those folks," he writes.