Public Policy Polling released its final poll today on the Democratic nomination race in North Carolina and it's got Barack Obama 10 points ahead of Hillary Rodham Clinton, 53%-43%.

The firm has been reliable in some primary contests this year but blew Pennsylvania bigtime last month. It had Obama winning by 3 percentage points (he lost by 9).

PPP is based in Raleigh and polls on a number of races in North Carolina. Its press release and full questionnaire on the presidential primary are here. And here is a blogpost in which communications director Tom Jensen explains how the firm arrived at its turnout projections, in particular by black voters.

As Mark noted earlier, several polls today show a tighter race in North Carolina. And as we note several times everyday, polls are snapshots. They don't forecast what will happen when voters go to the polls.

Update at 1:20 p.m. ET. A new national number:

Gallup just reported on its latest national tracking poll, which now shows Obama leading Clinton 50%-45% among Democratic voters. Yesterday, Obama was ahead 49%-45%. Given the poll's 3-percentage-point margin of error, Gallup is noting that the two are basically tied -- and have been for 12 days in a row. (Reminder: They're essentially tied because the margin of error applies to both numbers. So, Obama's support could be as low as 47% and Clinton's could be as high as 48%.)

(USAT)