Richard MichaelDemocrats and Dixie: How to Win Back the South
July 16th 2008 20:26
The Campaign Train...
The democrats have a new strategy to win the conservative south... Road Trip! Howard Dean will be riding through the south in a campaign bus adorned in the red, white, and blue of Obama's campaign logo. Dean and his staff will begin in Crawford, Texas (Bush's hometown) and make their way through the south registering voters. It is their hope that registering African-American and rural voters will enable the democrats to once again reclaim the south.
The democrats dominated the old confederate states for most of the twentieth century; it wasn't until Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 civil rights bill that the party began to lose popularity south of the Mason Dixon line. By the time Reagan had won the presidency the south was pretty much a lock for the Republican Party, owning mostly to their stance on religion and foreign policy.
Although the democrats have high hopes for their efforts in the south, Republican spokesman, Alex Conant proclaimed that it would take "more than a road trip" to convince southerners to vote democratic. Conant points out that Obama isn't much different from previous democratic hopefuls and that it'll take a lot to change people's minds, especially in states where Republicans have traditionally won with double digits.
Obama hopes to make the southern race tighter by registering black and rural voters who don't normally vote in elections. Given that McCain's approval rating among African-American's hovers at a generous 5%, Obama feels that a renewed enthusiasm for the political process could make the black vote a dominant force to be reckoned with. Although the democrats have little hope of winning strongly conservative states like Texas, they do have a chance at some states that seem to be swinging toward Obama's corner. These states include: Georgia, Missouri, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina.
Dean's trip will start in Texas; take him through the Deep South states of Louisiana, Mississippi. Then, he'll swing through the southern coast of Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, before heading up north and finally to Denver to the Democratic Convention.
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