HENDERSONVILLE – I’ve been traveling westward from Raleigh today, making speeches and talking with local political activists and news reporters. Big surprise: outside of the immediate vicinity of the state capitol, few North Carolinians are paying a great deal of attention to latest votes in the General Assembly or the latest maneuvers of Gov. Beverly Perdue.

Within the downtown Raleigh cocoon, it might look like Perdue’s recent vetoes and veto threats have given her some political traction. Outside it, however, the governor is in huge trouble – and picking fights over ObamaCare, corporate welfare, charter schools, and the voter ID bill has only made things worse.

North Carolina swing voters don’t much like the first two. Perdue is defending them. Swing voters do like the latter two. Perdue is attacking them.

This is no way for the governor to begin her uphill climb to electoral viability in 2012. And as the latest survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling confirms, Perdue is heading in the other direction.

The governor’s approval rating has slipped to 30 percent, with 52 percent disapproving. If a rematch with 2008 Republican nominee Pat McCrory were held today, Perdue would get clobbered by a double-digit margin.

PPP tested other Democrats against McCrory, too, and they didn’t do much better. As I’ve previously observed, it’s doubtful that anyone except Perdue herself can keep her from being renominated, and she’ll only opt for one-term status if it’s both obvious that she can’t win and likely that someone else could.

That means that the best option Democrats have right now is for the governor to recover her footing and make a serious contest out of what now seems a foregone conclusion. In my opinion, such a strategy would require several difficult steps:

• Change the subject. Perdue is getting nowhere picking fights with the GOP majority on issues where she’s on the unpopular side. It may be making newly powerless Democratic lawmakers and political operatives feel better about life in a newly Republican place, but it’s all show – and pretty much all for their benefit. The receptive audience doesn’t extend much beyond the 440 Beltline.

Instead, Perdue should work out compromises on charter schools and voter ID, get them off her plate, and then look to challenge Republicans on other issues where she might have a better chance of winning public support. Meanwhile, she should spend most of her time outside of Raleigh, talking up every glimmer of economic recovery.

• Choose different targets. Few North Carolina voters know who House Speaker Thom Tillis or Senate leader Phil Berger are. Most probably still don’t know that the Republicans are now in charge of the state legislature. I’m not naïve enough to believe that an unpopular governor can regain lost ground without picking some useful political fights. But perhaps she ought to consider picking them with other people.

For example, Perdue could try criticizing both parties in Washington for failing to pass a federal budget and risking a government shutdown, discussing the potential implications for programs and services in North Carolina.

• Convey optimism. While some compare and contrast may be necessary, Perdue shouldn’t be spending most of her time trying to blame someone else for the misfortunes of North Carolinians. She needs to reassure the public that better days lie ahead and that our problems have practical (and affordable) solutions, while associating herself with promising new ideas and ventures. There should be more photo ops at private firms adding jobs, more public meetings with entrepreneurs and scientists, more positives in general.

The current strategy isn’t working. Perdue has lost her footing. Too many Democrats in Raleigh act as if they’ve only seen a snapshot of her in the air and assume she’s jumping up.

No, ladies and gentlemen, she’s falling.

Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation.