Is North Carolina cooked?

The News & Observer is up with a story that Team Romney is so optimistic about its chances of winning North Carolina that it’s beginning to move resources out of the state to more competitive battlegrounds.

From the site-leading report from Rob Christensen, one of the state’s top political reporters:

The Romney campaign is beginning to feel confident enough about North Carolina that is beginning to shift staff out of the state. Among those who are being posted elsewhere in the final weeks of the campaign is Robert Reid, the chief Romney spokesman in North Carolina. “With the increasingly widening polls in North Carolina, we will continue to allocate resources, including key senior staff, to other states,” said Michael Levoff, a Romney campaign spokesman.

The move comes after a string of recent polls, including one from North Carolina-based Democratic pollster Public Policy Polling, have shown a narrow lead for Romney.

(See also: POLITICO's polling center)

The RealClearPolitics polling average currently shows a spread of 5.6 points in favor for the GOP nominee — the widest margin in any of the nine swing states.