GOP pollster on Obama: "Americans love a comeback kid"

(CBS News) When Barack Obama won the state of North Carolina -- by a margin of just 14,000 votes -- in the 2008 election, it was the first time in 32 years that voters in the state chose a Democrat for president.

Four years later, GOP pollster Frank Luntz partnered with the University of Phoenix to revisit sentiments toward President Obama in North Carolina. Luntz conducted a focus group composed of 27 swing voters, 24 of whom voted for President Obama in 2008.

Frank Luntz joined "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday to discuss the results of the focus group. Of the 27 voters, six of them said they were voting for Romney, he told "CTM" co-hosts Norah O'Donnell and Charlie Rose. Seven more said they were leaning towards voting for Romney and the remaining eleven participants said they will likely vote for Obama again. Luntz touched on the possible broader implications of this small focus group.

His overall takeaway from the focus group is that "people are really hurting, and it's not something that you can really measure in the polls."

More specifically, he claims the group spreads the blame for the tough few years they've had.

"They blame everybody," he said before adding, "The president is lucky because he's only the second most unpopular...Congress is disliked even more than Barack Obama is."

Luntz said that although some swing voters in the group will switch their vote from Obama to Romney, their feelings toward Obama remain favorable.

"They think he's a decent guy...and they respect him for the effort...but they're not convinced that the next four years will be any better than these four. And for them, they can't afford another four years like this."

Luntz also offered some hypothetical advice for the president, based on his discussions in North Carolina.

"I would tell him to admit that all hasn't gone as well as he would have wished. I would tell him to be candid, because Americans love a comeback kid, but I don't think he will."

Still, Luntz thinks Obama could come out on top.

"In the end we will vote for someone who understands us over someone who can fix our problems," Luntz said, explaining why he thinks Obama can still trump Romney in the election. "Mitt Romney made the case that he's a problem solver, but he still hasn't made the case that he gets the problems that need to be solved."