Barack Obama's campaign says Hillary Clinton is "waving the white flag" in North Carolina.
In a conference call this afternoon, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs attacked a Clinton spokesman's statement that North Carolina and other so-called red states are "virtually irrelevant" to the Democratic candidate in the general election.
"You have ... the Clinton campaign basically ruling out North Carolina in the general election and already waving a white flag," he said. "We believe this speaks to their weakness in those states as a general-election candidate."
He added that Obama would consider North Carolina "a major battleground" if he is the Democratic nominee.
U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield, an Obama supporter, noted in the call that unaffiliated voters now account for nearly 20 percent of the electorate in North Carolina.
"I don't accept the notion that we are a red state," he said. "Traditionally, we may have been red in years past, but the American people are looking for leadership and they are looking across party lines."
Gibbs recalled his senior year at N.C. State in 1992, when Bill Clinton lost to George H.W. Bush by less than a percentage point.
"There is a history of it being a swing state recently," he said.
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