The Southern Strategy

Via Eschaton, a very good article on Tom Schaller's Whistling Past Dixie on Firedoglake, a book on politics in the South. One interesting point is that the Republican "Southern Strategy", created by Nixon, is the one, correlated maneuver to appeal to conservative white males in the South. Sure, this sounds like a truism (Duh!), but it says something (not something GOOD) that the hard data backs up this piece of folk wisdom.

Also, be skeptical of those "centrist" democrats who say that Dems need to appeal more to "religious" voters because it does not work. And certainly no one would suggest that Dems should go racist (at least, I hope not). Also some good stuff on Dean's 50 state strategy, a strategy that paid off in spades during the midterms.